A key first step to transition to a “Smart City” SHOULD include Smart Lighting!

Why?

We all recognize LED-based and remotely managed streetlights consume less power, make our cities safer, liveable and more attractive and in the longer term reduce our carbon foot-print.  It is clear that Smart Lighting gives us both near -term benefits as well as longer-term benefits.  Below we explain some of these benefits that DOTS with our Partner MinebeaMitsumi can realize based on a few examples of previous Minebea Mitsumi projects:

1. How much money can cities save with Smart Lighting?

In a typical city, street lighting accounts for 40% of the City’s electricity costs.  By making these street lights “smart” the city can generate considerable savings.  The realized savings are visible soon after deploying the “smart lighting” so the city does not need to wait multiple years to see the impact.  In many cities around the world, Smart Lighting was one of the first steps a city took in their transition to a Smart City

The city of Gijon in Spain with a population of 280,000 inhabitants partnered with Paradox Engineering – MinebeaMitsumi and deployed a public and interoperable IoT infrastructure in 2016. Streetlighting was the first urban application to be run on it, with an initial installation of 1,150 LED luminaires being monitored and actioned by our software management platform. The economic saving for the city was assessed at around €100,000 a year.

Gijon, Spain (Picture courtesy of Paradox Engineering – MinebeaMitsumi)

Another interesting example is the Tesserete‐Canobbio bike trail in Ticino, Switzerland, where the local utility company upgraded the existing luminaires to LED technologies, connected them to a Paradox Engineering – MinebeaMitsumi wireless network and interfaced every lamp with a motion sensor.  The motion senser enabled lights to automatically switch on and are dimmed to 100 per cent only when cyclists or pedestrians pass by.  As a result, annual operating hours along the trail reduced from 4,300 to 600, and average costs decreased from 11.19 to 1.56 Swiss francs per light point.  This is approximately an 85% reduction per month!!

2. Reduce Maintenance and Repair Costs of the Street Lights

By having all light points connected to same network, cities can fully monitor and operate the lights remotely, leveraging a single software platform. Proactive to real-time detection of failures or out-of-the ordinary behaviours becomes possible, and technicians can be dispatched only when and where needed, arriving on site already informed of and equipped to address the specific issue. As well as reduced costs and more streamlined operations, this will improve the quality of service and citizens satisfaction.

3. Generate New Business Models for the City

Converting your street lights into a smart network, opens a world of new possibilities for the City.  Suddenly you can consider other applications such as CCTV, traffic monitoring and safety, smart waste, smart parking and environment sensors as possibilities to connect to the network.

Smart lighting investments can pay for themselves and even turn into a revenue generation opportunity. In 2016, the city council of San Leandro in California, USA, started its smart journey by replacing around 5,000 streetlights with LED lamps and implementing a wireless IoT network with a centralised management and control system from Paradox Engineering – MinebeaMitsumi.

Other applications and services were added over time to the network, such as integrated parking, public wireless internet and traffic video surveillance. Upon the initial spending of $5.2 million for energy- and water-saving equipment, it was calculated that the investment would generate $8 million savings over 15 years through reductions in energy and water use, and $1.5 million in positive cash flow over that time.

Smart Lighting in San Leandro, CA – connecting to other applications (Picture from Paradox Engineering – MinebeaMitsumi)

PT DOTS in partnership with Paradox Engineering – MinebeaMitsumi is eager to work with cities and districts in Indonesia.  We would be glad to work with you to assess your needs and work a plan that can move your City to become a “Smart City”

Contact Us: info@smartdots.co.id