The worldwide smart cities market is expected to pass the $1 trillion mark in 2019 to eventually reach $3.48 trillion by 2026. Ignited by advances in information technology, communications and the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT), this explosive growth for the smart cities market is opening the doors to incredible opportunities for municipalities – connecting and streamlining everything from street lights to traffic lights, police reporting and more.

In one example of smart city advancement, San Diego, California and Jacksonville, Florida are trialing new technologies that use LED street lighting to collect and analyze data. Every lamppost in these cities will become an active part of a city-wide information network, capturing and relaying data in real time about what’s going on around it. More recently, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the City of Las Vegas unveiled its latest focus on safety and security in its Innovation District through the use of smart street lights that monitor air quality, traffic and pedestrian congestion.

While the opportunities are endless and go beyond these two examples, municipal government leaders simply cannot expect to create a smart city alone. To realize their smarty city vision, these leaders need to focus on collaborating and communicating across all organizations and groups – including private companies, private citizens and, in particular, utilities.

In fact, in a recent survey of 644 utility, municipal, commercial and community stakeholders across the U.S., respondents indicated that smart city initiatives are expected to be driven primarily by electric utility (23 percent) and transit (24 percent) opportunities. What’s more, nearly 43 percent of respondents selected utilities as the top driver for their smart city collaboration efforts.

So, why are utilities so critical to smart city adoption and how can they accelerate the growth of smart cities for our more intelligent future?

How Utilities are Leading the Charge

By 2020, the number of connected devices is expected to reach 24 billion and the number of mobile-connected devices will reach 12 billion. This growing number of devices and digital applications provides cities with huge opportunities – but also poses a challenge for municipalities from a data perspective.

Smart cities rely on the processing of large amounts of data typically collected by sensors, such as in intelligent street lighting. For example, the city of Amsterdam uses more than 170 data-driven applications to shape their policies on public transit, public safety and energy use. This data collection enables municipal leaders to make more informed decisions about providing critical services to their public, but typically they struggle to manage, analyze and also maintain the security of this staggering amount of data they are collecting on a daily basis.

That’s where utilities come in. Utilities are adopting new solutions to modernize the grid and provide a more stable and reliable communications network that leverages analytics, while also providing an accessible wireless, scalable, secure and mesh-enabled environment. Not only are these solutions allowing for the seamless integration of Wi-Fi enabled products that are critical to smart city operations but they allow for the improved collection and analysis of data in real-time – and that goes beyond utilities’ smart meters and energy usage data.

Because utility assets are deployed throughout a city and have relationships with the majority of homes or business owners, they are integral to driving the transformation of a city into a smart city. With advanced technologies and analytics connected to the grid, sensors can be attached to anything to collect and analyze more data – from traffic lights to street lights, buildings and beyond.

Collaboration Between Cities and Utilities

Utilities have essential assets and infrastructure that make their participation in the smart city push crucial for the success of those communities. As such, utilities have a real opportunity to take ownership as potential partners with municipality leaders to accelerate the growth of smart cities.

In one example, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) joined the Smart City San Diego initiative, a collaboration across public, private and academic organizations to improve the city’s economic development, ramp up energy independence, encourage consumers to use electric vehicles (EVs) and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Their first step was in installing residential smart meters to produce real-time data around energy use

In another example, the city of Pittsburgh formed a collaboration to tackle its aged-out energy infrastructure issues together with Duquesne Light Company (DLC), NRG Energy and Siemens, as well as local universities, businesses and non-profits. Their smart city initiative aims to create a series of microgrids that connect energy generation, transportation and communications across multiple stakeholders in the community.

When it comes to making cities smarter, electric utilities and community leaders are overcoming similar challenges while oftentimes working toward the same goals.

A Resilient Smart City Future

As the demand for smart city innovation grows, cities are looking to outside insights and resources to help chart their course. Collaborating with utilities is critical to their success and, in doing so, municipalities will be well on their way to achieving their smart city goals and ensuring a more resilient future for their communities.