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Abstract

Enel is looking for innovative services and functions to be delivered to citizens and/or municipalities that can be provided by the use of the light poles infrastructure. This Challenge for Solvers is not only technical, but also to formulate a service based on a sustainable business model. 

Overview

BACKGROUND

ENEL owns and/or manages (on behalf of municipalities) lighting poles infrastructure in Europe and Latin America. This infrastructure provides a unique opportunity to host and support non lighting innovative applications as part of the development and deployment of solutions for smart cities, such as IoT (Internet of Things) based solutions. These applications can enable a number of new urban functions and services that can improve the citizens’ quality of life and municipalities’ city management, while also producing an enormous quantity of valuable data. While some services already exist (e.g. surveillance or traffic information) ENEL wishes to focus also on novel, highly creative and innovative services.
The Challenge to Solvers is then to formulate innovative services to citizens, having a sustainable business model and leveraging on the light pole infrastructure. Hence, the Challenge is to respond to questions such as:

  • Which technologies can enable new services for the light pole?
  • What value (both, social and economic) can new services generate?
  • What business model can be implemented?
  • What mode of interaction with the customer could be implemented?

 
IoT and smart services for cities
Light poles have the potential to support non lighting applications as part of the development and deployment of solutions for smart cities, such as, for instance, IoT (Internet of Things) based solutions. They can enable a number of novel urban functions and services that can improve the citizens’ quality of life, while also producing an enormous quantity of valuable data.
 
Smart light poles infrastructure can be used to host a number of different objects (e.g., videocameras, sensors, Wi-Fi antennas, etc.) generating a huge amount of data which can be the building blocks of new data collection technologies generating such innovative services. Current state-of-the-art in the installed infrastructure includes, but it is not limited to:

  • Temperature sensors
  • Climate sensors
  • Video Cameras
  • Wi-Fi antennas

 
These capabilities have already led to many services in the fields of surveillance, climate information, traffic information, environmental monitoring, monitoring of people flows, optimization of mobility flows, waste management, smart parking, SOS, digital signages, and many other. For the purposes of this Challenge, the Seeker would like to go beyond these already defined “standard” services and appeal to more creative and innovative services.
 
ENEL Operations
ENEL operates under two different scenarios in Europe (Italy, Spain, Romania) and Latin America (mainly Chile Colombia and Brazil):
A. In some locations, ENEL owns and manages the public lighting pole infrastructure
B. In others, the owner of the infrastructure is the local municipality and ENEL only manages the maintenance operations and services
The consequences of this are that in scenario B, ENEL has a more limited capability to implement changes in the infrastructure, and Solvers should account for that in their proposed solutions (for instance including other subjects as part of the business model). The other difficulty is that municipalities do not generate enough funds to sponsor or pay for services, hence the need for revenue-generating business streams from such services, so to make them sustainable whilst providing social value aligned with municipalities’ mission. 
 
Submissions for Scenario B will not be considered less interesting or valuable by ENEL, but Solvers should be aware of its specificities and, hence, consider and address them in their proposals
 
This Theoretical Challenge requires only a written proposal.


For questions about the challenge and your proposal you can contact EnelOpenInnovabilityChallenges@innocentive.com
For technical support about the submission you can contact OpenInnovability-support@enel.com

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Description

THE CHALLENGE
Enel is looking for innovative services and functions to be delivered to citizens and/or municipalities that can be provided by the use of the smart light pole infrastructure. The Challenge for Solvers is not only technical, but also to formulate a service that has a sustainable business model. The Challenge is to respond to questions such as: Which technologies can enable new services for the light pole? What value (social and economic) can new services generate? What business model can be implemented? What mode of interaction with the customer could be implemented?
 
With that in mind, any proposed solution should address the following Solution Requirements

  1. The service must use the light pole infrastructure, either by making the most of current technological capability and/or by adding novel ones
  2. The service must be innovative. In this sense, currently known and already existing services in fields such as (but not limited to) surveillance, climate information, traffic information, environmental monitoring, monitoring of people flows, optimization of mobility flows, waste management, smart parking, SOS, digital signages, are out of the scope and not eligible for awards
  3. The service must generate revenue, so that it is economically self-sustainable. A clear business model that describes how revenue can be made (including all possible revenue streams such as selling the data to other parties) and who sponsors/pays for the service must be submitted by the Solver
  4. The service must provide a clear benefit to its target customers, the citizens and/or municipalities. Ideally, and particularly relevant for the scenario where municipalities are involved, that benefit includes some social value in its proposal 
  5. The proposed service must be feasible. Please refer to the Background section for a recap on the two different scenarios that are found in ENEL’s current operations 
  6. The service must address a large market in the geographies where ENEL operates 
  7. Solvers must address with particular attention the management of the data, taking into account nationally and internationally applicable law in the geographies and markets which the proposed solution addresses 
  8. The proposed service should not encounter “freedom to practice” issues or be available for potential licensing. There should be no third party patent art preventing its feasibility.

 
PROJECT DELIVERABLES
The submitted proposal should include the following:

  1. Detailed business plan that describes the proposed service(s) and meets the above Solution Requirements
  2. Rationale in terms of why the Solver believes that the service and business model will be successful. This rationale should address each of the Solution Requirements described in the Detailed Description and should be supported with any relevant examples. 
  3. Data, drawings, case studies, or any other appendices that can be of support to the proposed solution.

 
The Seeker is highly committed in investing in this field. Hence, the Seeker may wish to partner with the Solver at the conclusion of the Challenge for a post-Challenge collaboration for development and/or proof of concept. Solvers should describe their expertise and include a statement indicating their interest in this opportunity.
 
The proposal should not include any personal identifying information (name, username, company, address, phone, email, personal website, resume, etc.) or any information the Solvers may consider as their Intellectual Property they do not want to share.

Challenge rules

This is a Theoretical Challenge which requires only a written proposal to be submitted. The Challenge award will be contingent upon theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker. The solution may combine existing components, commercially available components, and/or novel Solver solutions. Ideas leveraged from other industries with similar problems are encouraged.
To receive an award, the Solvers will not have to transfer their exclusive IP rights to the Seeker. Instead, Solvers will grant to the Seeker a non-exclusive license to practice their solutions.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (CET) on June 13, 2018.
Late submissions will not be considered.

What happens next?

After the Challenge deadline, the Seeker will complete the review process and make a decision with regards to the Winning Solution(s). All Solvers that submit a proposal will be notified on the status of their submissions

ABOUT INNOCENTIVE


InnoCentive collaborates with Enel to manage this challenge.
InnoCentive is the global innovation marketplace where creative minds solve some of the world's most important problems for cash awards up to $1 million. Commercial, governmental and humanitarian organizations engage with InnoCentive to solve problems that can impact humankind in areas ranging from the environment to medical advancements.

Attachments

About the seeker Enel-Enel X

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CSA Theoretical (Non-Exclusive License) - INNOVATIVE SERVICES

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