5G technology installed in public buildings such as schools, hospitals and leisure centres could save councils £580 million a year, according to Vodafone UK.
The modelling by WPI Strategy has found that installing digital twins, IoT and smart sensors could save the average town of 40,000 residents up to £350,000 every year on energy bills.
A poll of 2,000 UK adults revealed that most (92 per cent) are worried about the future of their local facilities and three-quarters (77 per cent) have already seen libraries, leisure centres and even schools close due to a lack of council funding – with figures showing 1,000 swimming pools have closed in England since 2010 alone.
The lack of funding is also making it more difficult for people to access basic services, with respondents saying they’ve experienced a reduced service at their GP surgery (27 per cent), hospital (17 per cent) or police station (20 per cent).
Vodafone has produced an image to help local councils and residents visualise how 5G-enabled technology could be integrated into towns across the UK.5G standalone (5G SA) technology can seamlessly integrate many connected devices and sensors with IoT across heating, cooling and lighting systems to monitor energy use and identify efficiencies. For example, the combination of IoT with motion sensors can measure inhabitants’ patterns of work and how a building consumes energy, enabling adjustments to be made.
Innovative technology, such as digital twins –virtual representations of buildings that use real-time data from sensors to simulate behaviour and monitor operations – enable engineers to study them in detail on a computer remotely and identify where efficiencies can be made, as well as predict faults and fix them.
However, for towns to gain the full benefits, these technologies need the reliability, high capacity and low latency of 5G Sa network. Beyond saving money in energy bills, these energy savings across the public estate could also help government to decarbonise, by removing 1.43 million tonnes of CO2e per year.
This comes as 73 per cent of people believe that it’s important for their local authority to reach its net zero targets, but 66 per cent aren’t aware of the impact technology can have on reducing energy used by buildings.
Current government targets aim to reduce carbon emissions in the UK by 68 per cent by 2030 and 77 per cent by 2035. An annual carbon saving of 17 per cent in the public estate, achieved by implementing 5G-powered technologies, could help to move closer to that goal.
Andrea Dona, chief network officer of Vodafone UK said, “We believe that a best-in-class 5G network would provide a much-needed economic boost to the public purse, saving £580 million of taxpayer money, while also helping to decarbonise the public estate.“With rising costs and constrained budgets, councils across the UK are feeling the squeeze and communities are suffering as a consequence. We know how important public spaces are to local towns, with over half of people saying they bring the community together in a positive way, so we must protect them.
“Public buildings are critical to communities, and we want to propel them into the future – which is why, as part of our proposed combination with Three UK, we have committed to rolling out 5G Standalone to every school and hospital across the nation by 2030.”