Amsterdam to tap smart energy with help from IBM and Cisco

While some more conservative sections of society probably view Amsterdam's long-standing attitude to drugs and prostitution as anything but enlightened, the Dutch capital was also one of the most important ports in the world and home to the oldest stock exchange. Now it appears that the city is keen to capitalise on its innovative past by embracing developments in energy efficiency with a new project to bring smart grid and metering technology to the city's residents.

Part of a wider project known as the Amsterdam Smart City initiative to create a more sustainable city, a consortium consisting of Dutch utility Nuon and US technology giants Cisco and IBM announced this week that it is to roll out smart metering and "home energy management technology" to about 500 households.

The organisers claim that as a result of installing the technology in the local electricity grid and homes, the residents will save on energy costs and cut CO2 emissions by about 14 per cent.

"Now that more than half of the global population lives in cities, we need to acknowledge that achieving a sustainable future lies in our urban centres," said Guido Bartels, general manager of IBM's Global Energy and Utilities industry division. "Smarter energy initiatives are foundational for other critical infrastructure systems that make up a city – this project will enable the city of Amsterdam to leverage integrated, intelligent and interconnected technologies to transform their systems and optimise the use of finite resources."

As part of the pilot scheme, Nuon and IBM will oversee the software applications for the grid energy management system while communications and telecoms specialist Cisco will be responsible for the connectivity between household appliances and the energy grid.

"Giving the citizens of Amsterdam more information and better control over their energy use will cut down on costs and consumption as well as reduce their overall impact on the environment," said Marthin de Beer, senior vice president of Cisco's Emerging Technologies Group. "Innovative cities such as Amsterdam recognise the opportunity in using the standards-based intelligent communications network as a platform for economic development, better city management and improved quality of life for citizens."

The UK government has also been investigating smart grid and smart metering technology and this week reiterated its commitment to roll out smart meters to every household in the country by 2020.

As part of its new Low Carbon Transition Plan, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said that it will draw up a new smart grid policy backed by an additional £6m in research and development cash. The government also announced that under the plan it would be "challenging 15 villages, towns or cities to be test-beds for piloting future green initiatives".