Lights provide scope for sensors to provide data for smart city dashboards
Cardiff City Council is nearing the completion of the installation of more than 14,000 LED street lights with the potential to support smart place infrastructure.
Philips Lighting, which is providing the Luma LED lights with its CityTouch street light management system, said the installation will be completed in about the half the time originally allotted by the council.
Jacques Letzelter, head of public lighting for Philips Lighting, said: “It provides a scalable and flexible digital infrastructure which gives the city options for the future, such as inputting data into smart city dashboards or adding sensors that could, for example, monitor noise or traffic.”
Each light point is being connected wirelessly to the management system, which monitors and controls the network for the city. This enables lighting managers to dim or increase the brightness of street lights to meet the needs of the city at any given moment. For example, brightness levels can be increased near busy crossings or to help emergency services.
Chris Jones, lead electrical officer at Cardiff City Council, said the move has given the city an infrastructure that can grow with its needs.
“With continual monitoring, we can now respond instantly – such as increasing light levels at peak times outside schools and hospitals,” he said.
Philips Lighting said that switching to connected LED lighting can reduce electricity consumption by up to 60% and save the council more than £750,000 per year. It will also contribute to the goal of reducing CO2 emissions.
