UrBC, Yekaterinburg, March 22, 2019. The Smart City Standard has been adopted in Russia, and Yekaterinburg’s District Akademicheskiy is going to serve as one of the testing grounds for the launch of the standard, the district developer KORTROS Group’s press service reports.

The agreement to this effect got signed by KORTROS Group of Companies and Russia’s Construction Ministry.

The Smart City Standard comprises the following: urban management, smart housing services and utilities, urban environment innovations, smart public transport, smart public and environmental safety systems, telecommunications infrastructure, tourism, and the tertiary sector. Quite a few smart solutions are already in use in Akademicheskiy, as a matter of fact.

‘We already have the smart city in question, more or less, with the social infrastructure and tech solutions in place. In District Akademicheskiy, every one in three apartments gets its data transferred to a dispatcher control panel: you can see how much electric power has been used, for example, and get advice on how to cut the spending if necessary,’ says President of KORTROS Group Veniamin Golubitsky.

The district is expected to have 1,300 hectares worth of buildings for 325,000 people by the time the construction has been completed in 2025. There will be 9m m2 worth of housing and 4.2m m2 worth of social infrastructure facilities and commercial estate. This is currently one of Europe’s largest urban development projects and the winner of numerous estate contests and prizes.

The area has been relying on AI appliances from the start; locals can now track the way every single utility functions in their home and save up to 40% on housing bills.