Smart Cities: Limits and Possibilities in the São Paulo Macrometropolis

The smart city notion is fashionable in contemporary urban planning literature. Among the guiding discussions, the inclusion of smart technology in the urban fabric has stood out among the essential components that would provide new infrastructures, systems, and digital interactions for cities. However, these discussions often ignore the difference in the ability to access new technological innovations in many cities worldwide. The different levels of technological access are outlined by the location, richness, and penetration of new elements according to their viability. While cities located in large centers in rich countries enjoy easy access to current technology, developing countries have cities that need more basic and traditional infrastructure. The modernization of urban space, in the scope of Latin America, for example, does not follow a linear path like the European centers. Given this differentiation, this paper analyzes the SPMM region and discusses the local limitations for the insertion of smart city models based on the analysis of local indicators. The collected and investigated data seek to establish a relationship that is not only technological but brings a focus on the electric energy sector. As digitalization is an essential element of the energy transition, technology today is directly coupled with energy appropriation and infrastructure modernization. In many aspects, this region is currently served by several technological elements, more advanced and with greater coverage than other Brazilian regions, but far below other cities in the world. The results can be later extended to national scenarios and Latin America itself, fostering discussions about the local state-of-the-art in the innovation of digital and intelligent systems and the financial and technological limitations of the region.