At the heart of the Getra Group's core business there is the interest in supporting the adoption of alternative and sustainable energy models to improve smart city.
The smart city represents a new model of urban reality designed to optimize the use of resources, guarantee lower emissions and improve the quality of life of citizens while respecting the environment and through digital solutions and advanced technologies.
The goals of smart cities are: to become energy self-sufficient and, consequently, became economically independent. For this purpose, traditional networks and services are more efficient or they replaced introducing water supply, structures suitable for the correct disposal of waste, more efficient ways to produce and convey energy, and a sustainable transport network.
Smart cities play a key role in the evolution of global economic and consumption models. Cities must evolve and progress in the direction of environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, digital innovation and ecological transition.
WHY INVEST IN THE SMART CITY
According to the latest UN study, it is estimated that by 2050 more than 68% of the world's population will live in cities. The result is significant because urban centers are responsible for 70% of the planet's polluting emissions, so they have a very strong impact on the climate changes. In addition, large urbanizations are mainly responsible for the production of waste and emissions of CO2 and other pollutants. Investing in smart cities, therefore, means rethinking cities through the development of innovative economic models, favoring ethical consumption paradigms in order to support local production.
Six policies characterize a smart city:
The involvement and participation of the population is a crucial point in the development of the smart city. The administrations must establish a direct dialogue with the citizens, favoring the elaboration of a co-planned city in which everyone could feel to be co-author of public policies and concretely represented.
This economy applies the benefits of the opportunities offered by technology to increase local prosperity. Elements include on smart economy: zero kilometer urban commerce, more inclusive economic processes, circular economy.
Closely linked to the smart people line, smart governance implies the adoption of governance models aimed at encouraging civic participation in the creation of public value.
Smart mobility involves researching and using new ways of travel by reducing pollution and inefficiencies. The goal is to manage transport through advanced solutions such as mobility management, sharing mobility, e-mobility, micro-mobility, multimodality.
This includes the themes of sustainable development, circularity of resources, energy efficiency considered priorities in the design of smart cities. The goal is not only to reduce energy expenditure, but also to completely rethink the relationship with the environment through new and more ethical consumption models.
This represents the combination of benefits and services that must be accessible and guaranteed to citizens to improve economic and political efficiency and to allow social, cultural and urban development, ensuring a better quality of life.
THE COMMITMENT OF Getra
To support the transition to the smart city, Getra has undertaken activities on electric mobility. The aim is to design fast charging stations integrated with energy storage systems and connected to production plants from renewable sources.
With the expansion of distributed generation, the electricity grid is no longer just a channel for transmitting and distributing energy but becomes a “smart” network: a Smart Grid, a network capable of create an interaction between producers and consumers. Until now, the electricity grid had been designed with a one-way power flow in mind. Such a system, characterized by a predominantly radial topology, was not conceived to support the Distributed Generation (GD) and therefore is not suitable for its diffusion, except in marginal quantities.
For a possible full implementation, Smart Grids require a very important paradigm change at a technological and methodological level. In fact, we move from a centralized control network to a distributed control network. The power and energy flows can no longer be unidirectional, but must be bidirectional and it is in this context that solid state transformers, also called electronic power transformers and indicated with the acronym PET.
The additional features of an electronic power transformer compared to a classic transformer are:
- Optimized control according to the needs, this guarantees a power absorption from the network with a power factor close to unity regardless of the loads supplied
- Reduction of space and weight through the use of a high frequency interface
- Prevention of the propagation of faults and disturbances between interconnected networks
- Ability to regulate the voltage and current in and out of the structure
- Control systems and protection against overcurrents, overvoltages and faults integrated within the structure
- Bidirectionality of energy flows