Founding partners announce newly-named smart city living lab,
formalize collaboration and announce initial pilot projects to
address urban challenges
The six founding partners of Urbanova, the newly-named smart
city living lab in Spokane, Washington, announced today the
formalization of their collaboration. The group signed a memorandum
of understanding to align their efforts around a shared vision and
purpose for the project. For more than two years, the partners,
including Avista, the City of Spokane, Itron, McKinstry, the
University District Development Association and Washington State
University (WSU), have been working to create a living laboratory
to design cities of the future in the 770-acre University District,
adjacent to Spokane's downtown core.
Urbanova's goal is to harness data to gain insights, empower
people and solve urban challenges in new ways. It will enable
healthier citizens, safer neighborhoods, smarter infrastructure, a
more sustainable environment and a stronger economy. The
collaborative effort is already yielding results with smart city
projects, including a smart and connected streetlight pilot,
“Shared Energy Economy” model and smart city research grants.
“Urbanova has seen tremendous progress this year. As new
technologies continue to change the energy landscape, Avista is
proud to be one of the founding partners to come together to create
a smart city technology proving ground that anyone can utilize and
that everyone will benefit from -- in the heart of Spokane,” said
Heather Rosentrater, Avista vice president of energy delivery.
“Each partner brings expertise and leadership in their respective
fields. Aligning our efforts will support projects that can enhance
the livability, workability, sustainability and quality of life in
cities, starting with Spokane. It will also create a testing ground
for companies and innovators who are working on smart city
solutions to be replicated around the world.”
“The City of Spokane and its citizens will greatly benefit from
Urbanova's mission as it aims to improve the economy, environment
and well-being of our community. In the future, cities will address
issues like resource scarcity, traffic, safety and health through
the use of technology. Local businesses and residents will want to
be involved in this exciting work,” said City of Spokane Mayor
David Condon.
Here's a closer look at several of our proof points of success
to date:
Smart and Connected Streetlight Pilot
The smart and connected streetlight pilot is the first of
Urbanova's smart city projects and central to its participation in
Envision America's yearlong technical support program. The pilot
aims to intelligently manage and control streetlights to increase
energy efficiency, among other goals. The pilot will also feature a
human-scale urban air quality R&D component, measuring the
quality of the air at different sensor points throughout the
district and assessing its role in a healthy city.
The pilot will play a key role in helping define how to develop
and design a living laboratory, from establishing a data governance
platform to understanding how to architect a shared platform, while
also working through issues, such as who owns the data, who
controls it and how it is shared.
Shared Energy Economy Model Pilot
Avista was recently awarded a grant from the Washington
Department of Commerce and Governor Jay Inslee's Clean Energy Fund
to demonstrate how a Shared Energy Economy can benefit Washington
energy consumers. As part of the grant, Avista will work with
several partners to pilot a Shared Energy Economy model in the
University District. Avista's partners in this endeavor include,
UniEnergy Technologies, McKinstry, Schweitzer Engineering
Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the U.S.
Department of Energy, Washington State University and technology
partner Itron.
The Shared Energy Economy model will allow various energy assets
-- from solar panels and battery storage to traditional utility
assets -- to be shared and used for multiple purposes, including
system efficiency and grid resiliency. By doing this, Avista and
partners will demonstrate how both the consumer and utility can
benefit.
Smart City Research Grant
Researchers in the WSU Voiland College of Engineering and
Architecture are leading a five-year, $1.5 million initiative to
develop a framework to monitor, predict and control energy and air
quality in an urban environment and to record resulting health
impacts in Spokane's University District.
Funded by Washington State University (WSU), the
multi-disciplinary initiative is part of WSU's Grand Challenges in
smart systems, which aims to harness technology to improve quality
of life. The initiative will link researchers in WSU's Energy
Systems Innovation Center, the Laboratory for Atmospheric Research
and the Institute for Sustainable Design with Urbanova and its
public and private sector partners. The initiative will help build
capacity within WSU to pursue smart city solutions and funding.
In addition, Urbanova partners have applied for several other
grants and opportunities to catalyze initial efforts.
“Itron knows from our experience working with smart city
initiatives around the globe that the proving ground in Spokane is
a valuable resource and essential for the effective development of
smart city solutions that are scalable and replicable,” said
Sharelynn Moore, vice president of global marketing and public
affairs at Itron. “Cities across the globe are working to use
technology in new ways to help improve services and infrastructure
for citizens and to help address urban challenges like energy and
water usage, traffic, waste and citizen engagement. Urbanova is an
innovator in this effort.”
Interested in learning more? Join us. We’d like to continue the
conversation. Visit www.urbanova.org
About Urbanova
The Urbanova is a living laboratory to design cities for the
future. Located in the University District, we harness data to gain
insights, empower people and solve urban challenges in new ways. We
enable healthier citizens, safer neighborhoods, smarter
infrastructure, a more sustainable environment and a stronger
economy. www.urbanova.org
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160928005423/en/
Itron, Inc.Director, Public RelationsAngela Lockwood,
509-891-3816angela.lockwood@itron.comorAvistaSenior
Communications ManagerLaurine Jue,
509-495-4174laurine.jue@avistacorp.com
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