Over the five years since its launch, the Smartcity Malaga project has achieved some impressive results, including the reduction of electricity consumption by 25 percent with equal performance and the decrease of emissions by 20 percent, equal to a cut of 4,500 tonnes of annual CO2 emissions.
The data comes from Endesa's White Paper dedicated to the Malaga project, which outlines the accomplishments of an initiative that has become an open-air laboratory for the development of the Enel Group's smart grid technology. The study confirms the potential of smart cities and the importance of combining different technologies in order to take effective, large-scale action.
The Smartcity Malaga project covers a surface of 4.2 square kilometres in the Andalusian city, involving some 11,000 residential customers and 1,200 industrial and service customers. The project involves a wide range of technology, including smart meters, renewable energy, electric vehicles, active demand management systems, smart lighting and electricity storage systems.
By using energy efficiency kits in their homes, 42 percent of the residential customers involved in the project have reduced their consumption by 10 percent, while industrial and service customers have achieved significant savings thanks to the installation of energy efficiency systems combined with active control equipment. Energy savings in streetlighting has been particularly impressive: thanks to the replacement of lampposts with new LED models, overall energy consumption has dropped by 25 percent.
Thanks to the experience gained in Malaga, the Enel Group's smart city projects have become a global benchmark for both the operational achievements such as the Green eMotion and Zem2All e-mobility projects and international conventions like Greencities, whose fourth edition was held in Malaga in October.