Data-Driven Framework for Consumer-Centric Microgrid Positioning in Smart Cities and Communities Towards Digital Urban Transformation

Rapid urbanization and the pressing global pursuit of resilience and decarbonization have positioned data-driven energy services as essential catalysts for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals in smart cities and communities. Yet, while microgrids offer a promising neighborhood-scale solution, existing positioning methodologies often privilege techno-economic or ecological-centric criteria instead of consumer equity and local demand patterns. To fill this gap, this paper introduces a data-driven framework to support consumer-centric microgrid site selection in smart cities. At its core lies the Urban Neighborhood Energy Demand (UNEED), a proposed numerical quality index that combines the city's geo-referenced indicators of renewable potential, emergency vulnerability, critical infrastructure coverage, heating-support infrastructure availability, local heating demand, and socio-economic context. This framework is applied to the metropolitan area of Porto, Portugal, and the results demonstrate that UNEED reliably highlights locations where microgrid deployment maximizes resilience, equity, and decarbonization benefits.