Petrol as a smart cities partner
48sati is a conference that brings together Croatian mayors and business leaders to foster joint efforts towards developing smart cities. This year’s event took place in Šibenik between 27 and 29 November, with Petrol among the enterprises outlining its energy and environmental solutions for sustainable development. The conference was attended by over 500 people.
The financing of public projects presents major challenges to cities and local communities, which must, in order to avoid an increase in public debt, seek out new ways of cooperating and of forging new partnerships. Cities are keen to invest in infrastructure and to maintain (and further improve) the level of quality of services for their inhabitants so that those services are aligned with the requirements of smart users to the greatest possible degree. Useful case studies and business models that enable cities to transfer as much of the risk as possible to private partners were presented at this year’s 48sati conference, which was also attended by Petrol. “Cities are ever more frequently opting for this form of collaboration as it transfers the risks to private partners and does not increase their borrowing. At the same time, those cities acquire a long-term and reliable partner. We are always building partnerships with local partners regardless of location and country,” explained Miran Jug, member of the management board of Petrol d.o.o. Zagreb.
With its integrated solutions for cities, Petrol ensure the uninterrupted management of five areas of key importance to cities: energy, buildings, infrastructure, water cycle and mobility. Within these areas, cities can opt for different combinations of services, and Petrol’s projects are present in more than 80 cities in the region. The company have already carried out several dozen energy-efficient projects to renovate public lighting systems in the region. The projects have generated considerable savings in electricity and energy costs and, at the same time, reduced CO2 emissions by over 7,000 tons a year. A large number of activities are being conducted in relation to e-mobility, where the company have installed numerous charging stations, on motorways as well as in city centres and at other strategically important points. Good charging infrastructure is a prerequisite for the development of e-mobility.
Tango platform fosters friendly, usable cities
Sustainable development, clean renewable energy and reducing carbon footprint: these are the concerns at the top of the agenda of many cities that are investing in smart development of the future. Petrol are keen to help cities that are as friendly and usable for their users as possible, which has led them to develop their own IoT/OT platform Tango, to stand alongside those cities’ own solutions. Tango collects, verifies and processes large quantities of data, facilitates sophisticated data analysis and machine learning, and makes the optimal planning and management of the energy and environmental solutions offered by Petrol easier. Its flexibility means that the Tango platform is extremely useful to users of smart cities, as it enables data to be converted into usable information from which rapid, reliable decisions can be made.