Street lighting in Edinburgh ‘goes smart’ as part of council’s efficiency drive
The introduction of wireless technology should cut complaints and save cash, writes Angus Howarth
Smart street light controls will be deployed in 64,000 LED lights across the Scottish capital as part of a local authority energy efficiency programme.
Telensa Planet is a wireless central management system (CMS) that will enable centralised remote control of lighting in Edinburgh’s streets.
It consists of wireless nodes connecting individual lights, dedicated wireless connectivity, and a central management application. Councillors approved plans in 2015 to upgrade street lights across Edinburgh, saving the city an estimated £77 million over the next 20 years.
The Planet system provides realtime monitoring to identify and track faults, which will cut the number of residents’ complaints about broken street lights and remove the need for street lighting staff to undertake night-time patrols to identify faulty lights.
It also measures actual energy consumption, submitting information directly to a meter administrator and increasing the accuracy of energy billing.
The system’s manufactuers, Cambridge-based Telensa, claim it will pay for itself in reduced energy and maintenance costs, improves quality of service and enables street light poles to act as hubs for smart city sensors.
Telensa was selected by digital transformation leader CGI Group in an LED replacement contract run by Amey. The deployment is already underway and is expected to be complete by the end of 2020.
City of Edinburgh Council’s environment convener, Lesley Macinnes, said: “We are rolling out energy-efficient street lights with smart remote controls to communities right across the capital, starting this summer and continuing on a wardby-ward basis until the end of 2020.
“We’re making every effort to minimise disruption to residents and businesses throughout and will target information to communities as the roll-out comes to their area.”
Will Gibson, chief commercial officer at Telensa, said: “We are working with our partners in Edinburgh to deliver an efficient and smart street lighting control system, one that will be responsive to citizens’ needs for decades to come,”
“We’re looking forward to working together build a new generation of smart city applications.”