Intelligent street lighting is the future – a sustainable and bright future which cities can achieve today!
Numerous cities across Europe and Globe have already embraced smart street lighting and are benefiting from it. There are, however, many cities that still have not invested or thought about investing in smart street lights. If you belong to one of those cities, consider the following benefits that smart street lights have to offer:
| Energy Savings | Predictive Maintenance | Total Infrastructure Control |
| Foundation for Smart City | Lower Light Pollution | Improved Public Safety |
| Address Climate Change | Protect Flora and Fauna | Benefits from Day One |
Energy Savings
The need for fully lit streets is unnecessary in most places, especially during the late evening and night. Switching off lights completely, however, is undesirable as it may compromise road safety and make citizens feel unsafe.
With intelligent street lights, it is possible to save energy/cut energy waste by up to 80% while satisfying the needs of the road users.
Up to 80% energy savings!
Smart street lights can be dimmed automatically with different options – pre-defined schedules, AstroClock, ambient light sensor, motion sensor – to achieve significant energy savings.
Predictive Maintenance
The maintenance cost of traditional street lights can be very high. Without the knowledge of where the street light has failed and due to what reason, the truck roll, and the entailing cost increase. Inactive street lights compromise road safety and also give rise to public complaints, which may not look good for the local municipality.
Up to 50% lower maintenance costs!
With smart street lighting, the lighting operator gets proactive alerts/notifications for faults, alarms and outages. This helps the operator to address the problem quickly and adequately. The result – up-to-date lighting infrastructure, no public complaints, up to 50% lower maintenance costs, and of course, better image.
Total Infrastructure Control
The lighting operator or the municipality really does not know what is happening with their traditional non-connected street lights. How much power do street lights utilize, which street lights have failed and due to what reasons – in fact, they cannot even control the brightness of the street lights (as they are being non-connected).
Compete control of public lighting!
With intelligent street lighting, or in other words, network-connected street lighting, the operator or municipality has complete control. They can remotely:
- View and manage street lights
- Control light levels based on needs
- Monitor faults from their office and address them quickly
- Gain valuable insights, such as energy usage, savings, etc. of each street light
Foundation for Smart City
“Smart City begins with Smart Street Lights” – it is true.
Traditional street lights just provide light, at full intensity. Smart street lights, on the other hand, open doors for new opportunities.
By investing in smart street lights (Open Standard and Open API-based to be specific), cities can easily incorporate necessary IoT and Smart City applications to make the lives of citizens better and comfortable.
Smart lighting enables easy integration and interoperation!
Security systems, traffic lights, public kiosks, Wi-Fi hotspots, smart parking, EV charging, drone charging, and more – all can interconnect and interoperate with an open intelligent street lighting system.
Lower Light Pollution
Traditional street lights burn all night at full intensity, but it is not necessary. People hardly go out during late evening or night. Turning the light level down makes sense. Not only does it save energy, but it also minimizes light pollution.
Intelligent lighting helps curb light pollution!
Light pollution is often ignored, but it is detrimental to humans and nocturnal wildlife alike. It can disrupt the circadian rhythm, in other words, the sleep-wake cycle. Some of the other consequences of light pollution are:
- For humans – increased headache incidents, fatigue, stress, increase in anxiety, hypertension, which can lead to aggravation of cardiovascular disease
- For ecology (organisms and ecosystems) – confuse animal navigation/migration, change predator-prey relations, psychological harm
- The disappearance of the night sky
To fight light pollution, dimming street lights (one of the largest contributors), is the best option. And to dim street lights, an intelligent street lighting system, which consists of outdoor light controllers and motion sensors, is needed.
Improved Public Safety
Lighting walkways and streets is vital to create a comforting and inviting atmosphere in the urban setting. This lighting, however, should not come at a high cost. Dimming is the option, but what about the safety and comfort of scarce road users?
Smart street lighting enables "the right light at the right place at the right time," boosting public safety!
Intelligent street lighting with motion sensors is perfect to balance energy efficiency and public safety. It delivers on-demand/adaptive lighting and also creates a safe circle of light/follow light. With this motion sensor street lighting system in place, the streets can remain dimly lit when no one is around. However, when the sensor detects the human presence, it will brighten up the street light to full intensity, and also send a signal to adjacent street lights to increase their brightness. This happens spontaneously, hence, the road user literally feels safer and being more comfortable.
Address Climate Change
Most street lights use electricity generated by burning fossil fuels, a major source of greenhouse gases and air pollution. If these street lights remain fully lit all night when roads are vacant, then it is a big waste of energy.
Intelligent street lights help fight climate change!
Smart street lights help fine-tune/dim lighting levels on a need-basis. This dramatically reduces electricity usage, and eventually carbon emissions.
Protect Flora and Fauna
Street lights that burn at full brightness all night create light pollution, and as mentioned before, it is harmful to all living organisms.
Intelligent street lighting is beneficial for biodiversity!
Turning street lights off is not advisable so the best option is to adopt intelligent lighting. Through an intelligent street lighting system, autonomous dimming during the off-peak hours is possible, which helps lower light pollution and benefit local flora and fauna.
Benefits from Day One
Unlike any other smart city solution, investing in smart street lights delivers benefits from day one.
Numerous benefits from day one!
By deploying smart lighting, cities immediately achieve to following benefits:
- Complete control of public lighting
- Energy savings
- Lower maintenance costs
- Reduction in light pollution
- Citizen-centric/better quality lighting
- Strong base for smart city and IoT applications
- Protection for local flora and fauna
- Ability to address their climate goals
