Smart Cities and Communities launch conference

Speech by the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Neoklis Sylikiotis, at the launch conference for the Smart Cities and Communities Initiative, in Brussels, on Tuesday 10th of July 2012

The Cyprus Presidency’s view on Smart Cities and Communities.

Vice-Presidents of the European Commission, Commissioners,
Industry and City representatives,


Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honor and pleasure for me to accept the invitation by Commissioner Oettinger and be here to salute the new Smart Cities and Communities initiative. I am confident that it will reinforce the EU policy framework across the energy, transport and ICT sectors, in support of the sustainable urban development, as well as towards the future EU research and innovation policy and the relevant regulatory development.

The Cyprus Presidency welcomes the Commission’s new initiative on Smart Cities and Communities. This event is an opportunity to encourage and analyze how the EU initiatives affect the Member States and consequently the objectives of 20% energy saving and 20% of renewable energy contribution by 2020. Furthermore, it is part of our long-term vision to develop a low carbon economy by 2050, given the fact that 70 to 80% of the EU’s energy consumption takes place in cities.

The abovementioned acknowledgement leads to the conclusion that if we do not act with immediate measures in the near future, the consequences of this massive population increase in the European cities will increase the urban energy demand and have serious negative impact to the environment, transport infrastructure and energy use.

Smart City projects will positively contribute to the transition to a low carbon energy system in Europe. Additionally, they will help towards the implementation of flexible tariff structures by increasing the share of Renewable Energy Sources and through effective demand side management achieve the required peak shift, thus achieving a more efficient and flatter energy demand.

Smart cities, if they are deployed in large scale, can significantly contribute to the increase of observability and the provision of effective ancillary services by the Distribution System Operators. Additionally, Smart Cities secure the energy supply and develop self-healing architectures that will improve the reliability of supply to all customers. They can also help Member States to overcome the effects of high seasonal fluctuation in energy demand by utilizing more controlled renewable energy in the grids, hence improving at the same time the environmental constrains of Member States.

Any projects serving the aforementioned commitment, providing significant positive externalities, will not be realized if they are not adequately supported. Within the EU, there are small countries, with limited geographical coverage and number of network users that require the application of targeted measures and solutions in order to equally participate in the internal energy market and benefit from the EU policies and funds.

Cyprus is participating with 10 Municipalities to the Covenant of Mayors program. As you have already been informed, there is a proposal that was presented in the conference’s road-show for urban initiatives, the Neapolis Project in Paphos. This pilot project is based on pioneering concepts for a centrally based architecture of services, aiming at achieving a fully sustainable “New City” of Eco-Intelligence. The objectives call for implementing the most innovative development strategy, with the commitment to support the scale-up and replication of this initiative to other cities and communities.

The most important aspect for the development of the Smart Cities concept is to identify and promote the synergies of telecommunication and energy companies and to find the necessary tools, standards and legislation, to overcome the regulatory uncertainties and the immature market for truly integrated energy, transport and ICT solutions.

It has been proven in countries around the world, that process innovations that combine Advanced Metering Infrastructure have the potential to dramatically improve the economic efficiency and productivity of distribution and supply businesses. It is well known today that smart meters that abide to open protocol standards for interoperability can form the basis for a real-time gateway to customers, in line with the system automation requirements. However, these technologies need to be tested extensively, in order to offer valuable knowledge for effective roll out policies.

Cyprus is currently promoting a project for full smart meter roll out. The Electricity Authority of Cyprus has tendered out for the implementation of a Pilot Project which includes the replacement of 3,000 conventional meters with smart meters, the partial upgrading of its existing power networks to smart grids, the installation of a meter management data system and the installation of different communication systems to test different scenarios. The objective of the project is to determine the Electricity.

Authority of Cyprus’ requirements and the minimum functional requirements of the distribution system. The Pilot Project will also define the system’s architecture by assessing the suitability and compatibility of different telecommunication technologies.

Ladies and Gentlement,

The Cyprus Presidency encourages the support in Smart Cities investments but if these investments are not properly planned may increase even further the energy cost to the end consumer. Currently, the lack of cross-border connections to the European energy networks limits the amount of Renewable Energy Sources that can be connected to the system, due to technical constraints. It is important to encourage networking and collaboration at European level, in order to fully leverage the strength of the new technologies. The introduction of new technologies in existing cities will take time and it is advisable that in the meantime other direct methodologies should be investigated.

The use of existing infrastructures will be encouraged by giving incentives to the end consumers whenever possible to find ways on their own to monitor in real time their energy consumption or production. After all, it is widely accepted that the first step to save energy is to be aware where the energy is consumed, especially in real time. It has been proven by several Pilot Projects that wherever consumers are monitoring their consumption, they can save between 10-40% of energy. In this respect, it is suggested that the existing support schemes of Member States should be extended and the use of monitoring systems for household installations should be incorporated in the existing energy related support schemes. Europe has scarce resources for experimentation and is therefore compelled to find and share the most cost-effective and sustainable paths to realize smarter cities.

Thank you for your attention.

http://www.cy2012.eu/index.php/tr/file/XnxLPbC7uSb2nxXo9+AUZw==

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This is a speech that Mr. Neoklis Sylikiotis (N.S.), Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus, delivered on July 2012 at the launch conference for the Smart Cities and Communities initiative.

The target that the speaker is addressing is quite wide: at the beginning of his speech he speaks to the members of the EU Commission (who have high sector-specific knowledge but also a political profile), to the stakeholders (representatives of the industrial sector and of the major European cities), but also to all the European citizens who are interested in the smart city’s paradigm and, more in general, in European initiatives and policies on this theme.

As a representative of Cyprus government, N.S. speaks both as representative of the six month’s EU Council presidency and as a Minister of his Member State. The whole speech combines the formal role of leader of the EU council and, at the same time, his current high-profile role of Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Cyprus. When he speaks in representation of the EU Council he insists on the practical strategy that UE has to implement regarding Smart Cities while, on the other hand, when he speaks for his home country, he presents the initiatives and the best practices they have already achieved.

This is a very formal and technical speech, in which he tries to share ideas and suggest arguments that the following interventions could follow and develop further. He doesn’t use  “claptraps” and he sets “political” issues just four times. At the beginning of the speech he affirms that it is important to analyze how the EU initiatives (and therefore the management of the EU funds) affects the Member States (MS) and the achievement of the” EU2020” strategy’s targets. Then, in the middle of the speech, he underlines that different initiatives should include targeted measures and solutions in order to allow an equal participation to all MS, most of all for small countries “with limited geographical coverage and number of network users”( this is a very important issue for a representative of a very small MS as Cyprus is). Later he identify the key aspect for the development of Smart Cities in finding the necessary tools, standards and legislation to overcome regulatory uncertainties and create an integrated system. In closing he highlights the importance of building cross-border connections, networking and cooperating at European level in order to efficiently plan investments on energy.

N.S.’s  lexis is carefully chosen from technical jargon both from the world of Smart Cities and from the Energy networks and companies’ one. The most frequent words are, indeed: energy/smart cities (the two main themes), EU/Cyprus (the two roles that N.S. fulfills), development, renewable, technologies, system and project.

From the verbs and the adverbs he uses, such as encourage, develop, support, help, improve, positively and equally, we can understand that he tries to leave a positive message of hope and opportunities.

The speaker uses positive, complex and impersonal sentences to give the message that what he’s saying are shared, strengthened and unassailable ideas. Furthermore, he isn’t addressing to his public frequently, he does it only two times: at the beginning  of the speech and before the conclusions (in order to attract the attention on the most important part of his discourse).