Siemens, as a trusted global company in sustainable city development, is working in the digitalization of infrastructure, on increasing energy efficiency in both power grids and buildings, as well as on linking buildings to the power supply in Seestadt Aspern, Austria.
Together with partners such as the city of Vienna, Siemens has been carrying out one of Europe’s most innovative and sustainable energy efficiency demonstration projects since 2013. The project, the Aspern Smart City Research GmbH & Co KG (ASCR), ran its first phase in 2018, which is part of the 240-ha “Aspern - Vienna’s Urban Lakeside” - one of Europe’s biggest urban development projects. By 2028, Aspern is scheduled to have around 10,500 apartments, 20,000 jobs, a school campus, an industrial park, and a research center.
Working in close collaboration with research partners from Wien Energie GmnH, Wiener Netze GmbH, Wirtschaftsagentur Wien, and Wien 3420 Holding GmnH, researchers from Siemens have been testing and refining sustainable and innovative products in the areas of energy, environmental protection, building technologies, and smart grids in the “living lab” at Seestadt Aspern since 2013.
For Siemens, participation in the research association stands in direct relation to explicitly usable output. The knowledge gained leads to new applications for smart grids and building technologies and therefore to significant technological progress. Based on customer requirements, Siemens develops applications such as smart maintenance to support the operations, maintenance, and service of a building, or smart charging to enable improved integration of charging infrastructure into buildings as well as into the distribution network and to accelerate e-mobility.
In the first phase of the project, around 70 research questions were answered and several solutions for smart buildings and network infrastructure as well as 15 specific prototypes developed. During that time Siemens researchers handed in 30 invention disclosures and applied for a patent on eleven of them. In 2017 Andreas Lugmaier from Siemens Corporate Technology in Vienna and Friederich Kupzog from the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) were awarded the Siemens Inventor of the Year accolade in the category “Open Innovation” for their technologies in the field of power grids of the future.
The emphasis in the upcoming program period will be on continued research into the intelligent networking of buildings, grids, and markets. Furthermore, waste heat will be explored in-depth, also in terms of a possible solution for room-cooling applications. Questions regarding the smart charging of e-cars as well as their potential utilization as future energy storage systems will also be answered. Lifecycle and building management approaches (predictive maintenance) will also be improved.
Due to the strong involvement of Siemens, Seestadt Aspern stands out today as a globally recognized smart city role model in 2016 was honored with the World Smart City Award.
“Smart cities will be informed, connected, and inclusive of citizens, aimed at a more sustainable and resilient path and a more inclusive prosperity,” said Dr. Pham Thai Lai, CEO of Siemens Vietnam. “The term ‘smart’ embraces not just the technological but also the social and human aspects of a city. Smart building technology will help cities achieve the highest standards of environmental efficiency and reduce energy demands.”
Siemens has a unique digital offering for the infrastructure needs of a city. Siemens Vietnam is now working with cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on new city districts and urban mobility options to help overcome challenges to become smart cities. “We are working directly with the city to ensure that digital technologies are integrated into planning so it benefits immediately by reducing congestion, improving air quality, and increasing energy reliability,” said Dr. Lai. “Providing cities with the best possible products, solutions, and services is a strategically important task for Siemens. We are very excited to help make cities in Vietnam smarter and thus be more liveable and sustainable.”
Siemens Vietnam is also working with the Ministry of Transport and different city governments to make transportation more efficient by implementing intelligent traffic lights and traffic management systems to regulate the flow of traffic.
