An Overview of Smart Local Energy Systems

Abstract

The rapid advancement of Information and Communication Technologies in the last decade has revealed the trend of getting smarter to everyday objects. The rise of these technologies has also affected new areas such as smart cities and smart local energy systems. The smart cities paradigm focuses on evaluating industry and urban planning from an environmental and sustainable perspective, while ensuring people's well-being and rights. However, this transformation has obstacles. Energy management in sustainable smart cities aims to achieve environmental benefits, efficiency increase and cost reduction by providing significant improvements in clean energy processes. Smart local energy systems (SLES) integrate smart cities concepts to local and neighbourhood levels. In this study, while smart local energy projects examine the change in urban energy systems, the suitability of renewable energy technologies, production, distribution and energy management systems and the transitions in these systems are examined by considering a systematic change in local energy infrastructures. The concept of smart energy cities is an important step towards the future of cities, and future perspectives on the adoption of this model by other cities are also examined. The aim of the study is analysing the findings of SLES projects by literature review. In this study, after discussing the place of SLES in urban infrastructure and their importance for the future of cities, the basic issues and developments of the field are discussed through publications prepared in this field. SLES is a new concept and projects findings are brand new so the motivation of this study is to make a literature contribution on this area.

Keywords

• Local governments
• social participation
• urban infrastructure
• energy systems
• Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES)

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