Aberdeen City Council is installing an intelligent street lighting system comprising 3,500 control units on LED lights.
If has engaged smart solutions company Pinacl to carry out the work, investing £525,000 and supported with an extra £349,000 from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the Scottish Cities Alliance Smart City programme.
The project involves retrospectively fitting control units to new and existing LED street lights. They are controlled by a configuration management system and will be linked to a cloud based intelligent network to which other smart solutions will be added.
The move comes on top of a £9 million seven-year rolling programme of replacing old street lighting with more efficient LED lights.
The city council said the new system will make it possible to control and dim the lights, and remotely monitor them for any faults, and will ensure that repairs are carried out more quickly.
Transforming infrastructure
Its operational delivery convener Councillor John Wheeler said: “We are at the forefront of transforming the digital infrastructure in Aberdeen which will bring benefits not only to the council through savings, but also to residents by being smarter about getting our lights repaired.
“World class connectivity is important in our economic and social ambitions for the city and it’s fantastic that we are one of the first cities in Scotland to install an intelligent lighting system.”
The council has said the installation of LED lights will reduce its energy costs for street lighting from £2 million to £1.1 million per year, and should improve safety for pedestrians and provide for clearer CCTV images.
Image by CL, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
