Objective
The city of Brescia offers a particularly interesting framework for energy planning, with the integration of environmental problems - especially concerning transport and heating stations - and a reliance on innovative technological solutions.
The project has concentrated on studying the possibilities of improving integration of these different remote control, monitoring and management systems, which are linked to the energy, local public transport and environment sectors. This integration is important because it enables an optimization of energy saving, control and the reduction of pollution, as well as an improvement in the quality of life for the city's inhabitants.
One of the conclusions of this study is that the utilisation of a system like GIS (Geographic Information System) is especially important. A system of this kind represents an integration tool particularly well adapted for all the complex sub-systems involved in the three fields of transport, energy, and the environment.
The city has a high-tech infrastructure, with a whole range of equipment for automatic control and management. This principally consists of:
* on the roads:
- a centralised remote control system and a traffic light control system to regulate the flow of vehicles on the main city roads;
- a remote control and management system for the public transport sector; this is equipped in particular with electronic panel displays to keep passengers informed of the main collection points;
- a centralised management system for different car parks;
- a network of urban electronic display panels, which are also used for traffic management.
* in the energy sector:
- a remote management system for several heating stations for dwellings and collective buildings, allowing a rational management of energy and adjustments regarding atmospheric pollution effects;
- a remote reading system for meters, enabling better management of the supply required at peak periods.
* and lastly, regarding the environment:
A network for permanent remote monitoring of different parameters, like air quality, surface and underground waters, noise pollution, etc.
A large part of this advanced infrastructure has been implemented, on behalf of the city, by the public utility company, "Azienda Servizi Municipalizzati" (ASM). This agency has gained valuable experience in the management of complex and innovative systems. The project was divided into five phases:
- Initially, an analysis of the technologies (of those that are currently available or will be in the near future) was carried out, examining technologies necessary for the implementation of integration for the different urban services, especially in the field of data transmission systems.
- Phase two enabled a definition of the functional requirements for innovative solutions to introduce in the different sectors that will be integrated into the global system, by emphasising the dual objective: reducing energy consumption and reducing pollutionlevels.
- Following studies of the first two phases, an architecture for an automated management and control system was designed, and its planning.
- Phase four was based on ASM's managerial experience in the field of advanced telematics applications applied to public transport. It comprised the definition of a prototype that allowed the testing of a feasibility study of a global integration system in the road traffic sector. The development of this prototype undoubtedly represents the most important result achieved to date in this project.
- Phase five analysed the institutional organisation of the system, and established the normative conditions which permit its application in other European towns.
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DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
25100 Brescia
Italy