StreetLightNews

The free social messaging tool, Twitter, now enables San Francisco residents to reach the government customer service centre. According to San Francisco’s Chief Information Officer, Chris Vein, the city is the first city in the world to use Twitter on such a large scale to communicate with its residents.

Other than contacting the centre through traditional media such as phone or the centre’s website, citizens can now send a request on Twitter via SMS, IM or the Twitter website. Requests include streetlight repair among several others. It is possible for the residents to attach photos or links in their tweets allowing the centre to easier identify the location or problem being reported.

Other organisations are also beginning to use the same technology. Kissimmee Utility Authority now relies on its customers to help identify  street lights that are malfunctioning or in need of repair. With more than 15,000 street lights to maintain, the utility benefits from outage reports sent using the micro-blogging service Twitter. The utility asks that the tweet includes light pole number, the nearest address or major cross, a contact phone number and the phrase #kuaalerts.

Founded in 1901, KUA (www.kua.com) is Florida’s sixth largest community-owned utility providing electric and telecommunication services to 62,000 customers in Osceola County, Florida.

StreetLightNews recently met up with Nønne Holm Carlsen for a brief discussion on pros and cons regarding centralised (control cabinet) and decentralised (pole) streetlight management. Nønne Holm Carlsen is Communications Manager at Amplex A/S, a Danish company that work with utility intelligence.

But where does the company stand when it comes to its streetlight solutions? Do they prefer implementing intelligent communication devices and photo cells in each streetlight pole? This provides exact knowledge about every pole, but is expensive and time-consuming to install. Or does Amplex recommend the control cabinet solution with less precise knowledge but fast and low-cost in terms of installation and maintenance. Read on to find out.

What kind of streetlight solution does Amplex offer its clients?

- We offer both a circuit solution built into the control cabinets, and a pole-based solution. We do recommend the control cabinet solution because of the fast and low-cost installation process and because this solution will most often provide adequate knowledge and control. However, we do realize that individual control over certain geographic areas can be necessary. That is why we offer  a combined solution, allowing the client to control individual poles near hospitals, public buildings and other important areas.

How is Amplex different from its competitors?

- We focus on streetlight as part of a Smart Grid solution. We add intelligence to the LV network, and in combination with knowledge generated from feeder pillars and substations, we gain a far more detailed overview of all loads and assets in the grid, including smart meters. We also have the advantage of being market leaders. We control more than 5 million streetlights worldwide. Of these 5 million streetlights, we control 275,000 light points with a circuit, control cabinet solution in one project in the Middle East.

What if the customer wants more exact knowledge about the individual streetlights?

- Then we will recommend our pole-based solution. But with our less expensive, basic solution, we do register the number of burn-hours, allowing precisely scheduled maintenance efforts. And if a certain percentage of streetlights within one segment are mal-functioning, we do get an alarm that tells us about the problem, Nønne Holm Carlsen concludes.

City officials hope to secure significant long-term savings and public safety with the deployment of new energy-efficient street lights. First step is the installation of 50 LED (light-emitting diode) street lights in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood. Compared to traditional high-pressure sodium light bulbs, LED street lights are about 50 percent more energy-efficient, meaning that they last about two to three times longer and produce a whiter, brighter light which benefits the public safety.

Other than implementing LED lights, the city of San Francisco also demonstrated new smart street light control technologies at a local media event. Smart control technologies can contribute another 20 percent of energy efficiency improvement in addition to the LED lights, the article states.

The new technology can help reduce maintenance costs by allowing the operators to monitor individual street light perfomance, adjust the light intensity level and receive immediate information when lights have failed or are about to fail.

The street lights of San Francisco are owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Company and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, respectively. Both organisations are now working together on testing and evaluating different smart control technologies to better the energy efficiency in San Francisco.

Companies also offering smart control technologies are Power-One, Amplex and Streetlight Intelligence to mention a few.

The Canadian company Hybridyne Power Systems and Japanese founded Panasonic have created a street light solution that is powered by both the sun and the wind. The solution features a solar panel on top of the street light pole, and a vertical-axis wind turbine positioned between the lamp’s two poles.

Since the solution is self-powered, it can be installed anywhere without expensive trenching and wiring. The low-cost solution also eliminates the problem with electricity blackouts, and it features an optional wireless video security webcam. Read more about the Kazekamome system here.

A great deal of street light operators use the internet as a way of staying updated on the functionality of their street light poles. If an outage is discovered, citizens can inform the operator via an online maintenance request form as in the case of Draper City, Utah.

As much as the advance in terms of using the Internet as a communication platform for operaters and citizens must be applauded, one cannot help mentioning an even more advanced solution. A great deal of the largest players in the utility sector offer solutions that feature fault detection meaning that the operator can stay updated on the status of all the street light poles from a central location. Companies such as Power-One, Amplex, and Streetlight Intelligence all offer enhanced maintenance functionalities assisting you in staying ahead of the game.

Using the technology at hand, such features ease the coordination of maintenance efforts thus saving time and money.

The New York Times reports that a number of cities have turned off or are planning to turn off a number of their street lights in order to save on the electricity bill because of high energy prices and tight budgets. It is alarming news when considering the safety of the respective citizens.

Further, the NY Times writes that the city of Santa Rosa, California has come up with the idea of adopting a light. The adopt-a-light programme gives the local citizens the opportunity to contribute to the Public Works Department. For $150, you can turn a darkened street light back on.

However, the article does not suggest street light dimming although many municipalities and cities around the world has benefitted from dimming, reporting savings of up to 25-40 %. Further, if the street light solution features fault detection, the operator will be much better equipped in terms of coordinating maintenance, thus saving time and money. All in all, dimming seems a brilliant alternative to darkening the streets.

Japanese company Sharp is now launching a solar-powered streetlight. Combining Sharp’s own solar modules and long-life, white LEDs, the Japanese company presents the environmentally friendly streetlight solution of the 21st century. The unit delivers brightness at the highest level; still the unit does not produce any light pollution, uses no mercury, and emits no ultraviolet light.

Storage batteries charge from sunlight during the day and shines automatically at night. The level of maintenance is minimal as Sharp’s solution only requires replacement once every 10 years.

One of the extra benefits that especially cities in earthquake zones will enjoy is the built-in seismic motion sensor. This feature enables the unit to detect any earthquake measuring five or higher on the Japanese Seismic Intensity Scale. When detected, the unit will turn on full brightness at nighttime hours for at least two days.

Initially, the solution will be available on the Japanese market. In Europe, the European Union applaudes companies who commit to the reudction of light pollution. Thus, the EU GreenLight Programme has been developed to involve public and private organisations in upgrading their lighting systems to reduce light pollution. Well-known B2C companies such as McDonald’s and Nike have been awarded partner status, while international operating B2B companies such as Amplex A/S and Reverberi Enetec are awarded the endorser status.

A recent article in Washington Post describes how streetlights are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. The newspaper quotes Robert Grow, director of government relations at the Greater Washington Board of Trade, for estimating an annual reduction of 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions if the 10 largest metropolitan areas of the US switch to a centralized solution and LED streetlights. This is equivalent to taking 212,000 cars off the roads and save an additional 90 million taxpayer dollars annually.

In his report on streetlight savings, Grow recommends a centrally controlled streetlight solution with dimming and optimized maintenance functionalities.

According to the Post, Grow was surprised that more hasn’t been done already to improve the efficieincy of streetlight.

As previously described in this blog, the most efforts have been made in the town of Ann arbor, Mich. where all streetlights have been converted to LEDs.

Centralized streetlight solutions are offered by companies such as US-based Echelon with installations in e.g. Oslo, Norway, and Danish company Amplex with installations in e.g. Scandinavia, the United Arab Emirates and Asia.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, city officials are experimenting with LEDs for streetlight.

The US company Relume Technologies has provided 12 LEDs for a pilot project which will cut a significant part of the consumption and maintenance bills.

Other North American cities to test LEDs for streetlight are Ann Arbor, Raleigh, N.C. and Toronto, Canada.

See more at the Grand Rapids Press. 

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if cities and towns did not have to rely on residents to report street light outages? Typing ‘street light’ into a search engine provides hundreds of hits on cities urging their inhabitants to report any outages. Some even offer coloured ribbons which can be tied around the poles in order to help maintenance crews locate them.

Several companies offer solutions which can improve maintenance procedures and increase control with the street lights: Amplex, Cristal Control and Streetlight.Vision.