#insights

Urban mobility plays a fundamental role in smart cities. Public transport and underground infrastructure are two of the biggest challenges to guarantee an efficient and sustainable mobility model in large cities. And, delving into these challenges, the ventilation of these spaces is crucial for the well-being of users. This field has benefited in recent years from important advances in technological innovation, with the application, for example, of data analysis, sensors and artificial intelligence to achieve greater environmental efficiency.

There are success stories in Spain that support the development of these tools, one of them being the Barcelona Metro network, which has deployed Respira, a platform based on artificial intelligence, which anticipates problems and optimizes ventilation in underground stations, improving the passenger comfort and reducing energy consumption by collecting temperature, humidity and pollutant data through IoT sensors as well as integration with the infrastructure’s SCADA System.

The system deployed by Metro de Barcelona addresses the challenges of underground ventilation by predicting environmental conditions and intelligent management of ventilation equipment distributed throughout the metro network. Its objectives include the reduction of energy consumption and the improvement of thermal comfort and air quality, as well as the identification of improvement points in the network, proposing investments based on cost-benefit analysis.

Advanced engineering for a complex challenge

Respira is based on sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms that allow precise and adaptive control of ventilation in real time. This solution not only balances environmental variables such as temperature, humidity and air quality, but also optimizes energy consumption and improves passenger comfort.

Respira’s ability to efficiently predict and manage environmental conditions in subway tunnels and stations has been critical to its success in the demanding and dynamic environment of underground public transportation. Since its deployment in the Barcelona Metro, Respira has demonstrated a series of tangible results that reflect its positive impact on the operation and sustainability of the transportation system. Thanks to its implementation, a notable reduction in energy consumption has been achieved, with an annual saving of 6.2 GWh, equivalent to 25.1%.