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NETWORK / 37 / JUNE 2016 This report set out Bristol's energy use characteristics as well as its demographic and social challenges and economic ambitions. By the early 2020s, the collaboration hopes Bristol will be able to: • Balance heat and power demand and supply across the city in real time. • Curb energy waste and reduce peak demand. • Enhance the financial value of heat and power generated in the city, particularly from variable sources like wind, solar and tidal. • Reduce network losses and manage system constraints. • Provide commercial lever- age in the energy market to capture for the city, its busi- nesses and households, the economic benefits of local energy systems. u Bristol has launched its own municipal energy sup- plier – Bristol Energy – and is supporting the deployment of electric vehicles. It is one of four UK cities trialling autono- mous vehicles. London has been a leader in a number of significant urban innovations, and is a unique smart city demonstrator envi- ronment for the UK because of its scale. Like most UK cities, it faces considerable energy efficiency and infrastructure upgrade problems because of its aging building stock. How- ever, the city has demonstrated forward-thinking approaches to its challenges with strong com- mitment to open data and the exploitation of data to improve services, according to Navigant. London's smart city strategy is the shared responsibility of the mayor, the Greater London Authority and the city's 33 boroughs. Also, London's smart city strategy was given a boost in 2013 with the establishment of the Smart London Board and publication of the Smart London Plan. The chair of the Smart London Board is Professor Da- vid Gann from Imperial College, London. The future looks ripe for progress on London's smart energy ambitions – new mayor Sadiq Khan has pledged to be the greenest yet. In early June, he attended an event hosted by Arup and the Association for Decentralised Energy to explore the ways in which he will deliver his manifesto prom- ises to further decarbonise the capital's heat and promote local energy generation from renewables. Key smart infrastructure/ energy initiatives and mile- stones in London include: u The establishment of the London Datastore and use of detailed data modelling. An example of the latter is a neighbourhood demonstra- tion project in the districts of Bromley-by-Bow and Poplar in which 3D visualisation is informing local decision- making across multiple developments, including community-owned infrastruc- ture, home energy-manage- ment systems, smart grids and building retrofits. u The establishment of the Smart London Infrastructure Network includes organisa- tions that deliver London's in- London frastructure services – primar- ily the utilities responsible for water, energy, telecommunica- tions and waste management. u The city is currently engaged in several smart grid projects throughout the capital, includ- ing the Dispower project, a smart urban low-voltage network and UK Power Net- works' vulnerable customer and energy efficiency project. The GLA has also become the first local government author- ity in the UK to be licensed as a junior energy supplier. This enables the city to buy power from small generators at a higher price and sell it on to other public bodies at an attractive rate. u In January 2016, it was an- nounced that London – along with Milan and Lisbon – had been awarded funding under the EU's Horizon 2020 programme for the three-year Sharing Cities project. It will develop, deploy, and integrate replicable solutions across the energy, transport, data and information and communica- tions technologies sectors. Navigant rates Manchester, which has the second larg- est economy in the UK a'er London, as a contender smart city rather than a leader. Nev- ertheless, it is home to some groundbreaking smart energy programmes that are expected, in the coming year, to present notable findings on the feasibil- ity of aggregated demand-re- sponse services from connected building management systems. Manchester's smart city strategy is linked closely to its desire for greater regional devolution and its integral role in the Northern Powerhouse movement. Its strategy will no doubt receive a further boost in 2017 when the city will elect its first mayor – who will be keen to address Manchester's consider- able challenges of population growth (increasing 1.6% a year) and unemployment. Key smart infrastructure/ energy initiatives and mile- stones in Manchester include: u Triangulum is a five-year, €25 million Horizon 2020 project involving Manchester, Eindhoven in the Netherlands and Stavanger in Norway. Each city has a particular smart city focus – Manchester's is energy and the others focus on mobility and ICT. Siemens plays a leading role in the Manchester project, which will trial a number of smart solutions for low-carbon development, including: Manchester reduced energy consumption in buildings, increased use of renewable energy and EVs, and deployment of intelligent energy management technologies. Some of the concepts that Manchester will trial in this project have already been proven by Siemens in Glasgow – another challenger smart city, according to Navigant. However, Manchester's ambition is to build on these findings, breaking new ground in aggregating responsive building management systems through a Scada-style central control system. The ambition is to establish a smart city replication model for others to follow. u Manchester's environmen- tal targets are set out in the Manchester: A Certain Future report, which defines the city's climate change action plan for 2010-20. Targets have been set to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 41% by 2019/20 against a 2009/10 baseline. Projects identified in the plan include a civic quarter heat network and EV charging infrastructure among others. Manchester is behind target on meeting its carbon-reduction goals, according to the last re- view; however, progress is be- ing made on the development of a local energy company and the extension of the city's heat networks.