Working in collaboration with ZENNER, Bonn public utility company Stadtwerke Bonn has set up an extensive LoRaWAN® network and laid the strategic foundations for the city’s digital transformation. The solution interconnects the fields of smart utilities, smart cities and smart buildings.
The city of Bonn is an important hub of administration, science and international collaboration. With its rich history, lively culture and state-of-the-art infrastructure, it offers an attractive environment for urban projects and innovative solutions. Bonn is currently ranked in 38th place in Bitkom’s Smart City Index.
Scalable smart city foundations with LoRaWAN®
Working in collaboration with ZENNER, Stadtwerke Bonn is setting up an open, interoperable LoRaWAN® network to serve as the technological basis for the city’s digital development. LoRaWAN® wireless technology offers many benefits, especially in municipal environments. For example, it boasts long-range capabilities combined with low power consumption. A variety of smart metering, submetering and smart city applications can be implemented with the help of a single network. What’s more, the architecture can be extended on a futureproof and flexible basis. The city of Bonn can therefore integrate a whole host of use cases into the urban environment with ease.
In operating its LoRaWAN® network autonomously, Stadtwerke Bonn is boosting its digital independence while also expanding its own specialist knowledge. As it has full control over sensitive measurement and infrastructure data, it can operate thousands of sensors throughout the entire urban area securely and cost-effectively. What’s more, thanks to long battery lives, maintenance intervals can be increased and ongoing expenses can be kept low.
Holistic data strategy for smart utilities, smart cities and smart buildings
Just under 1,600 meters and 400 smart IoT devices are currently deployed in the LoRaWAN® network. The city of Bonn’s consumption, environmental and operating data is collected centrally on the ZENNER B.One element iot platform, thus creating one integrated pool of data for network operations, infrastructure management and building control.
“Stadtwerke Bonn is implementing a whole host of projects and use cases with ZENNER. As an infrastructure supplier and utility company, we are working with ZENNER under the joint digitalisation strategy of the city and Stadtwerke Bonn to roll out use cases of all kinds – whether that means metering, submetering or smart city applications,”
explains Christian Roosen, Senior Project Manager at Stadtwerke Bonn.
Stadtwerke Bonn has used B.One element apps to set up a dedicated city dashboard – Bonn Connect. This visualises selected data and makes it available for use by various target groups, such as internal administration staff, partners and the public. Over and above the IoT sensor data, external data sources can also be integrated to create a fully comprehensive digital representation of the city.
Digital sovereignty and sustainability thanks to IoT
By digitalising meter reading and monitoring processes in smart metering, the city is tapping into important savings potential. The intelligent interlinking of LoRaWAN®, smart metering and the Urban Data Platform is creating a high-performance ecosystem for the sustainable further development of Bonn as a networked smart city.
“As a project manager, I really value the close collaboration we have with our customers such as Stadtwerke Bonn. The many use cases give rise to lots of subprojects, which we successfully implement together step by step. All that plays towards the ultimate goal – the smart city,” explains Patrick Leiner (right), Senior Project Manager IoT at ZENNER.
Roosen (left) adds: “In ZENNER, we have a truly pioneering partner for submetering and infrastructure digitalisation. ZENNER also has extensive experience in widespread connectivity and meter reading. It is on this basis that we have implemented our initial pilot projects together. These successful projects have given rise to a strong and sustainable partnership.”
