NORDIC EDGE EXPO IN STAVANGER: BRUNATA INTERNATIONAL & MINOL ZENNER GROUP WINS SMART CITY IMPLEMENTATION AWARD 2019

 
SMAVARD honours the most innovative implementations in the Smart City market

 

Stavanger, Norway. Brunata International & Minol ZENNER Group was announced as the winner of the second edition of the SMART CITY IMPLEMENTATION AWARD 2019 (SMAVARD) on September 25. The awards ceremony took place during the Nordic Edge Expo in Stavanger, Norway, and recognises implementations with highly innovative potential to disrupt the status quo of the existing Smart City market.

A professional jury of Smart City experts selected the winners who showed the greatest potential of revolutionising the existing Smart City market. Although it has been a tough decision, the panel led by Alanus von Radecki from the Urban Governance Innovation Team of Fraunhofer IAO, came to a mutual agreement on the winner of the SMAVARD 2019: Remote advanced sub-metering for real estate and public buildings in Germany.

About the winning company

The European Energy Efficiency Directive demands remote reading of water and heat detectors all over Europe until 2027. In its Use Case, Minol Zenner has connected 300,000 end-devices across Germany, immediately providing citizens and service providers with the exact cost and time savings. The need to travel for maintenance workers of utility companies is thus reduced by 90%. The system uses the company’s LoRaWAN network, one of the largest networks of this type in Europe, to transmit the data to a central information and control system. LoRaWAN is an open communication protocol that is administered and developed by an international non-profit alliance of 500 companies and enables Smart City technology for many other non-critical applications. The judges were convinced by the scale of the implementation, the use of open standards, the clear and scalable business model, the direct impact on European energy efficiency and climate mitigation targets at scale, as well as the constant improvement of the citizens’ lives.

Tone Grindland, Regional Director Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises, not only praised the commitment and success of the award winners in her laudation, but also highlights the efforts that numerous other companies throughout Europe are making: “The six award winners contribute immensely to an improvement of urban life. The winners represent all the other companies that have applied for the SMAVARD 2019, as well as many hundreds more all over the country. Each and every one of them has recognised that improving urban life brings advantages for the citizens and at the same time strengthens climate protection.”

The competition was open to all companies that had successfully implemented a European Smart City project and attended the Nordic Edge Expo. In order to participate, the companies had to submit a detailed description of their individual Use Case. An expert jury selected and announced the winners from the shortlisted finalists on the Expo Stage on Wednesday afternoon. The SMAVARD was co-organised by BABLE, a young spin-off company of Fraunhofer, and the Nordic Edge Expo in Stavanger, Norway.

THE WINNERS OF THE SMART CITY IMPLEMENTATION AWARD 2019 ARE:

OVERALL WINNER
Brunata International & Minol ZENNER Group (Germany)

Minol Zenner has connected 300,000 end-devices across Germany, immediately providing citizens and service providers with the exact cost and time savings. The need to travel for maintenance workers of utility companies has thus been reduced by 90%. The system uses the company’s LoRaWAN network, one of the largest networks of this type in Europe, to transmit the data to a central information and control system.

 

SPECIAL MERITS | TOPIC: PUBLIC SERVICES
Boost.ai: VAN: World’s first virtual agent network (Finland / Stavanger)

With the increasing immigration in Finland, the Finnish Immigration Service Migri faced a major staff crisis with regards to the efficient handling of phone enquiries. Their response rate dropped significantly to only 20%. In collaboration with boost.ai technology, Migri created a virtual agent (VA) – a chatbot on their website which answers the visitors’ questions and additionally supports the human service personnel. In November 2018, this service was further expanded: a whole network of virtual agents for the immigration, taxation and patent departments has been created, thus facilitating a seamless transfer of visitors to any of these services. Since then, Migri has noticed a steady drop in calls and an improved customer satisfaction with the use of the VAN network.

 

SPECIAL MERITS | TOPIC: ENERGY
Cosy from Geo (Nordics / Great Britain)

Nordic homes usually have multiple heat sources and multiple heating devices with no central control systems. Cosy from geo showcases a great example of the adaption of a solution in a local context. The smart home controller enables consumers full control over their home heating and tariff/TOU utilisation using geo's smart algorithms to optimise comfort at the right time and price. Supporting 30-40% cost and energy savings with improved comfort control in Nordic homes.

 

RUNNER UP | TOPIC: MOBILITY
City of Ettlingen (Germany)

The goal of this project is the reduction of individual traffic, especially on the last mile through on-demand and sharing offers. Therefore, the city offers various opportunities for personalised individual mobility services: app-supported on-demand taxis (myShuttle) in connection with public transport, bicycle rental systems, 20 electric cars in a sharing system and thermal image cameras that evaluate the traffic and calculate the fastest route through the city indicated by displays located at the entrance to the town. Additionally, the introduction of electric buses from 2021 onwards is already in the planning stage.

RUNNER UP | TOPIC: WASTE
Sensoneo (Czech Republic - Slovakia)

Optimisation of waste collection of 420 underground trash bins in the city of Prague. The main goal of this project was to create an effective tool for monitoring the filling capacity and condition of the underground bins with separated waste. This tool will provide the city with new information which will be used for the optimisation of waste collection routes, creation of predictive models for the planning of collection routes and the placement of new waste containers. Along with monitoring fill levels in the containers, Sensoneo would also like to try the technology for the detection of ball-of-insert chambers and automatic fire alarms. The data from the sensors that will monitor 420 underground bins with separated waste will be immediately integrated in Prague’s official data platform, Golemio, and being made ready for use.

 

RUNNER UP | TOPIC: CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
Innocode: Proactive, personalised citizen information and citizen involvement (Norway / Ukraine)


How to reach citizens with relevant and personalised local information? How to present advanced sensor data to users in a way that it creates value? How to engage local voluntary organisations and lift their content and events to the public? Innocode developed a personalised platform and app for all citizens. Sensor information from various sources is integrated in the app, providing personalised information for the users. Users start with an onboarding where they choose neighbourhoods and their personal interests. Content from more than 500 sources is then being filtered and personalised to create a relevant, hyperlocal service ensuring that information from the city reaches the right users at the right time.

 

BABLE UG & Nordic Edge Expo
Stavanger, 25 September 2019