Leveraging smart grids assets for building smart cities at marginal cost

The Smart Cities Mission has triggered the planning and designing of 100 Smart Cities in the country and it is expected that by 2030 more that 40% of India's population will live in urban areas. Using Smart Grids as anchor infrastructure to build Smart Cities in India makes sense given the need for modernizing the electricity distribution system to provide 24x7 supply of quality power to all. Compelling business cases are available for investment in smart grid technologies to improve operational efficiency and reduce system losses. Smart Grid is essential to integrate renewable energy resources on to the grid and green energy is a key element for Smart Cities and their sustainable future. This paper describes how Smart Grid assets can be leveraged to build Smarter Cities at marginal cost by extending the automation, IT and communication infrastructure of the Smart Grids to other infrastructure and services domains in a city.