Smart City to consume as much energy as 30,136 households
James Debono The futuristic internet village Smart City will consume as much energy as 30,136 households, projections by the Dubai developers show.
In a statement issued Thursday, the developers said the village will have a maximum power demand of 41.2 megawatts (MW), equivalent to 110,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy every year.
Megawatt hours are used for metering and billing large amounts of electrical energy.
Since a typical Maltese household consumes around 3.65 MWh a year, the amount projected by Smart City will be as much as that consumed by over 30,000 homes. Considering the typical household is composed of an average 2.7 persons, Smart City effectively will consume the power required by 81,000 people – ten times the population of Valletta and even more energy than the entire island of Gozo, which consumes around 25 MW of power.
The Resources Authority (MRA) has already deemed the energy demand required for Smart City when it is fully operational to be twice that of Gozo and around 9% of the peak demand of the entire country.
The Smart City estimate also exceeds earlier projections by Enemalta back in 2006, which estimated a demand of 30 MW by 2015 – ten megawatts short of the updated amount.
Asked on Enemalta’s plans to make up for this shortfall, a spokesperson for the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications replied that since Enemalta “is in the business of providing the power to our economy and society needs, it will endeavour to satisfy the energy requirements of Smart City and of any other approved development within practical and realistic timeframes.”
The developers have explained that the 41.2 MW estimate “is the result of significant energy-efficiency measures included in the design process of the project” – implying the demand would have been greater had mitigating measures not been taken into account.
They also pointed out that the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project is based on a worst-case scenario principle, which means it takes into consideration the worst possible impact:
“It is unlikely that the full load of 41.2 MW would be eventually used. However, the supply capacity to the project has to be in line with this requirement to ensure that if such demand is actually required then the national infrastructure would not be failing the project.”
They also claimed that Smart City Malta is developing the project in line with the international LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency Development) standards, which is a first in the development sector in Malta.
Still, according to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s own natural heritage panel, the EIS does not estimate or even consider the impact of this additional power requirement on the national carbon footprint, which is strictly limited by the European Union.
It has also lamented that the scheme does not provide for the generation of energy from alternative sources. The panel says the high-tech project provides a clear opportunity for the exploitation of such alternative sources of energy, which would include solar heating and street-lighting, photovoltaic energy generation and wind turbines.
Reacting to the EIS, the MRA’s energy directorate expressed serious concern on the “lack of a serious Energy Management Plan”. Although the developers are committed to achieve LEED certification for such a large project, the authority complains that “no specific measure to comply with energy efficiency measures is mentioned in the EIS”.
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