Guest Editorial: Special Issue on Computational Intelligence for Smart Energy Applications to Smart Cities

The papers in this special section focus on computational intelligence for smart energy applications in smart cities. By 2050, more than half the world’s population is expected to live in urban regions. This rapid expansion of population in the cities of the future will lead to increasing demands on various infrastructures; the urban economics will play a major role in national economics. Cities must be competitive by providing smart functions to support high quality of life. There is thus an urgent need to develop smart cities that possess a number of smart components. Among them, smart energy is arguably the first infrastructure to be established because almost all systems require energy to operate. Smart energy refers to energy monitoring, prediction, use or management in a smart way. In smart cities, smart energy applications include smart grids, smart mobility, and smart communications. While realizing smart energy is promising to smart cities, it involves a number of challenges. The articles in this section aim to provide in-depth CI technologies that enable smart energy applications to smart cities.