# Implementing Smart City Technologies to Inspire Change in Consumer Energy Behaviour
## 6 Discussion and Conclusions
User engagement using gamification approach is one of possible solutions for situations when smart metering data are not available or are insufficient. The end-user energy consumption habit assessment based on gamification allows estimating consumption and accordingly electricity bill in a certain period, possibilities of energy savings that can be reached by changing user behaviour, and the impact of possible installation of renewable energy sources. Furthermore, if aggregated load information can be provided to the utility control system and special contracts can be established to allow load reduction or even load curtailments in abnormal operation states of the system, traditional control functions, such as those related to outage management, can be considerably improved. Other solutions related to a microgrid and multi-microgrid framework might also benefit from aggregated load information. As for communication solutions, several conclusions derived from the analysis performed within the project are described below. First, the networks that connect to the public service with the electrical distribution system with the last mile applying smart metering technology do not require a high level of service; however, they do require sufficient reliability and privacy in order to correctly monitor customer consumption, utilise demand response strategies and improve system performance. Second, the implementation of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technologies for electrical power systems and energy supply measurement depends on both geographical distances and application and binary transmission speed. The envisaged type of network (WAN, NAN and HAN) and the consideration of the dedicated protocols in each scenario, require different levels of quality of service, latency, coverage and all these elements must be considered. Third, an important signal or level indicator of a smart city is its telecommunications network capacity, expressed both in number of simultaneous users (channel capacity) as well as transmission rate in Megabits per seconds (speed). All this could be verified in the current COVID-19 pandemic, where the relevant role of telecommunications in aspects such as the maintenance of human relations in periods of home confinement and the growth of traffic as a result of intense information management that can be done with Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, must be recognized. To conclude, the joint effort with multipurpose interdisciplinary approach could provide important insights into innovative methodological tools to inspire change in consumer energy behaviour. Future research should aim at mobile tool validation in real-life or close to real-life conditions and explore replication and scale-up opportunities in various circumstances and regions, taking into account inventory development and impact assessment. Additionally, this shall be supported by promotion of energy efficiency through technological education in order to maximise effects. **Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.M.; methodology, A.M.; software, M.D. ; validation, A.-M.D. and D.I. ; formal analysis, A.M., L.M. and D.I. ; investigation, A.-M.D., M.D., F.U.-V., D.C. and L.G.-S.; resources, A.-M.D., M.D., F.U.-V., D.C. and L.G.-S.; data curation, A.-M.D., F.U.-V., D.C. and L.G.-S.; writing--original draft preparation, A.M.; writing--review and editing, A.M., A.-M.D., M.D., L.M., D.I., F.U.-V., D.C. and L.G.-S.; visualization, A.M., A.-M.D. and M.D. ; supervision, A.M.M. ; project administration, A.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. **Funding:** This research was funded by the ERA-NET-Lac grant under the ERANet-LAC 2 nd Joint Call on Research and Innovation for Latin America, Caribbean and European Union Countries, Project ID: ELAC2015/T10-0643. This work has been supported also in part by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Project ID: 443199/2016-7. **Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.