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| Amsterdam Smart City to be continued |
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| KPN, Liander, Amsterdam Municipality and AIM join forces |
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KPN, Liander, Amsterdam Municipality and AIM (Amsterdam Innovation Motor) will collaborate on the Amsterdam Smart City project. The purpose of the extension of the Amsterdam Smart City project is to turn Amsterdam into the smartest and most sustainable city in Europe.
News of the partnership was broken in Amsterdam on the 6th of july by Mayor Eberhard van der Laan, Alderman Maarten van Poelgeest (Spatial Planning, Climate and Energy), Eelco Blok, CEO KPN, Peter Molengraaf, Director of grid operator Liander, and Joke van Antwerpen, Director AIM. The core objective of the new partnership is to give (SME) companies the opportunity to test innovative applications in the practice. The last two years Amsterdam Smart City together with and Liander, AIM and the City of Amsterdam have already been making this possible for various stakeholders with a strong focus on energy transition. The fact that KPN has now joined the partnership means that the focus will shift towards the use of broadband Internet connections.
Investing in the city
Besides the continuation of the open platform, Amsterdam Smart City, the new partnership also plans to invest heavily in the smart energy grid and open connectivity in the Amsterdam region. KPN is already supplying various city districts, such as IJburg, with a fibre to the home network. KPN wishes to use fibre to the home to stimulate and unlock the potential of services, such as telecommuting, and to improve remote care and energy management in homes and neighbourhoods. Grid operator Liander will invest in doubling the capacity of the electricity grid and the number of smart meters in houses and offices.
Collaboration essential
With its growing body of partners (currently 71), Amsterdam Smart City will go further in the years ahead in its quest to bring companies, knowledge institutions, the government and residents together in an innovative environment to ensure faster and more effective implementation of new products and services. To that end, it will set up approximately 5-10 pilots. Cooperation is essential if Amsterdam is to move forward as a smarter and sustainable region in the current climate of economic stagnation and cutthroat budgets, and to promote further investment and new developments: Cooperation between stakeholders investing in infrastructure and companies developing new concepts, as well as cooperation with the people of Amsterdam. This type of cooperation will take centre stage in the years ahead. Technology is the means and the new products and tested concepts the result. The results of the past two years demonstrate convincingly that this is indeed possible.
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| Amsterdam Municipality |
 Amsterdam Smart City is an example of public-private cooperation in the European context and was awarded the “City Star Award 2011” prize by the EU on 23 June. It also fits the “EU Smart Cities and Communities Initiative” that was launched on 21 June.
The municipality’s climate and sustainability ambitions demand new partnership forms, especially in these times of financial austerity. Amsterdam is therefore collaborating with all its partners in the city on a “hands-on” drive to render the existing city sustainable, to transform former industrial estates, to increase the share of sustainable energy production, to promote the large-scale rollout of city heat-cold exchange and the realization of innovative pilots. In that regard, the private investment from KPN and Liander, among others, is linked to the ambition to continue to develop a smart and sustainable city and to realize acceleration and scaling in the greater Amsterdam Metropolitan area.
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| KPN |
 KPN and partner Reggefiber make annual investments in the laying of fibre-optic connections in Amsterdam. KPN wishes to collaborate with other stakeholders in the development of services for its customers and for the city of Amsterdam. KPN thereby offers an open structure that will provide access to many companies. This strategy makes it possible to spread the risk and explore new markets.
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| Liander |
 Liander wishes to offer the people of Amsterdam smart technological options that enable them to save energy and make optimal use of the latest developments, such as electrical transport and domestic generation of clean energy. Some of the means for realizing those ambitions include smart meters and preparation of the electricity grid for sustainable energy management. The grid management of the future is digital, which is why Liander welcomes KPN’s participation in Amsterdam Smart City. Together we can more optimally accommodate the desire of the residents of Amsterdam to use energy in an efficient and sustainable way.
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| AIM |
 The Amsterdam Innovation Motor (AIM) is an enabler of innovation in the Amsterdam Metropolitan area. The accent in that regard is on the combination of knowledge (research), expertise (skills) and money (innovation and entrepreneurship). AIM’s focus in the ICT cluster is on the development of Amsterdam as a smart city by means of, among other things, the creation of Living Labs. For that reason, AIM and the municipality partnered with Liander in 2009 to establish the open platform, Amsterdam Smart City.
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