Product category:
Electrical Services
News Release from: Echelon | Subject: Remote control
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 June 2007
Streetlights controlled and monitored
remotely
Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom is using Echelon's technology to remotely control and monitor streetlights in the city, installed in over 400 streetlights as a trial project.
Echelon, a leading provider of networking technology that is used to manage and reduce energy consumption, has announced that the city of Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom is using Echelon's technology to remotely control and monitor streetlights in the city The monitored streetlight system has been installed in over 400 streetlights as a trial project, with 10,000 additional streetlights planned to be installed over the next three years following a successful tender process
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 5 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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The new system has reduced energy usage by 40 percent, increased security and safety in the city and reduced maintenance costs.
The project represents a major change in the way street lighting is designed and maintained in the city and is one of the largest trial schemes of its type in the U.K.
"This solution allows us to reduce energy and maintenance costs, while improving safety in our city, and the solution has been proven in other cities.
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The significant savings in energy costs alone will allow us to pay for the system, so it is really an investment in our city's future.
We pride ourselves on being a 21st century community with the motto 'the city that thinks differently' and we are pleased to invest in today's technology for tomorrow's savings," said Kevin Whiteside, Chief Highways and Transportation Engineer for Milton Keynes Council.
"More efficient energy use also helps us reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which is an ever increasing concern for communities and local government." Increasing energy costs as well as environmental factors are pushing cities to find innovative solutions to modernize their streetlight networks.
In a typical city, almost 40 percent of the electricity budget is consumed by streetlights.
When combined with rising energy costs in recent years, many cities are now being forced to look at new technologies and find a more efficient way of lighting their cities.
Furthermore, current European Union environmental initiatives call for the elimination of products contributing to heavy metal pollution.
Replacing older lighting ballasts that may contain mercury with newer, electronic ballasts can help alleviate this problem.
It is now becoming strategic and compelling for cities to implement solutions to measure, analyse, and reduce electricity use in order to reduce energy costs and contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, as required by the Kyoto Protocol and various European initiatives.
The new solution includes replacing older, inefficient lamps with newer, lower watt lamps that last longer, deliver better lighting quality, and include the ability to communicate over a network.
Each streetlight includes a new electronic ballast embedded with Echelon's power line transceiver that communicates with Echelon's i.LON 100 Internet Servers acting as segment controllers, which in turn communicate with a central computer back at the control centre that records energy consumption, lamp status and fault information of each individual streetlight.
The i.LON's built-in astronomical clock tracks the changes in sun light levels, enabling dimming of the lamps from midnight until dawn, which increases equipment longevity while reducing energy costs.
Enterprise monitoring provides the end-user with a Web portal through which the lamps can be remotely controlled, and displays lamp failure and energy consumption information.
This level of detailed information significantly reduces maintenance costs and response times for lamp replacements.
"Monitored streetlights are an excellent example of how Echelon's technology and products are being to make a significant contribution to reducing energy consumption worldwide," said Anders Axelsson, Echelon's senior vice president of sales and marketing.
"A recent study by the Association of Street Lighting Electrical Engineers (ASLEC) found that approximately 800,000 of the lighting columns in the U.K.
are outdated and are in urgent need of replacement at a total estimated cost of GBP500 million.
This is a huge investment for cities.
If each one of these lighting columns used energy more efficiently and cost less to maintain, it would be a solid investment towards reducing energy use and carbon dioxide omissions.
Forward thinking cities like Milton Keynes are viewing this as an opportunity to increase the value of their municipal assets, while decreasing overall costs." The city of Oslo, Norway, is using a similar solution to reduce energy consumption by 62 percent.
As part of its new intelligent outdoor lighting system, Oslo is replacing mechanical ballasts in its 55,000 streetlights with electronic ballasts that communicate over existing power lines using Echelon's power line technology.
The system remotely monitors and controls the lights, dimming them based on traffic, weather and available light.
It also analyses lamp behavior and identifies lamp failures.
Various cities in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands and Spain are also using Echelon's technology and products in streetlight solutions to reduce energy consumption.
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