How smart cities change the way we live

Two of my recent blog posts looked at the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in the Smart City region of Rheintal. So far I’ve interviewed the manager of the project at Bosch and the manager of the Rheintal project at illwerke vkw about the progress of the region’s VPP. I’ve now had the opportunity to talk to the head of the VPP working group, Dipl.-Ing. Prof. Jörg Petrasch.

I recently blogged about the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in the Smart City region of Rheintal. I’ve now had the opportunity to talk to the manager of the Rheintal project, Dipl.-Ing. Christian Eugster.

The initiators of the Smart City Rheintal project are the state of Vorarlberg and illwerke vkw, the state’s largest energy provider and head of the project consortium. In this region, they can build on numerous energy, mobility, and connected city initiatives bundled into “Smart City Rheintal” since July 2012. The goal is to make the region as energy‑independent as is technologically feasible by 2050 – preferably supplying all of the region’s energy from renewable resources. But what solutions are economically viable, now and in the near future? And what new ideas are the region’s residents willing to accept? Answering these questions is the most difficult – and most exciting – part of the project, which is scheduled to run until July 2015.