Case Study: EnBW achieves smart-city transformation by turning streetlights into digital service stations with Microsoft Azure

Innovative Utility Deploys Smart Streetlights as Digital Service Stations for the City of the Future

EnBW, a 20,000‑employee German utility serving 5.5 million customers, set out to transform itself from a traditional energy provider into a digital, service‑driven company that delivers new products for cities and citizens. Facing competition and changing market expectations, EnBW created an Innovation Campus to develop smart‑city offerings and identified the need for scalable, data‑driven infrastructure that helps municipalities improve services and citizen quality of life.

EnBW built SM!GHT—smart streetlights that bundle environmental sensors, EV charging, public Wi‑Fi, and emergency call buttons—and uses Microsoft Azure (IoT Suite, HDInsight, Cortana Intelligence) plus Microsoft Services for secure data management and analytics. A proof of concept and a mayor/city‑manager app were completed in under six weeks; about 50 cities have adopted SM!GHT, which helps cities mitigate traffic impacts, boost security, enable predictive maintenance, and has attracted international and commercial interest.

EnBW

Marco Schommer

Team Leader, Strategy and Architecture