Some 61,000 streetlights in the rustbelt city are being upgraded to include energy efficient LED bulbs, street sensing capabilities, remotely controlled functioning and features which allow emergency personnel to turn up the lights in a particular area to aid in an investigation or lend other support.
“The lights are on at only half brightness most of the times,” explained Amir Hirsch, director of business development at ST Engineering Telematics Wireless, the company leading the lighting transition to the T-Light Galaxy Network.
“So I think that’s really forward-thinking. I haven’t heard of any other city that’s doing anything like that. That’s really showing creativity and the use of this type of system,” Hirsch.
Cleveland’s upgrade of its streetlights follows the lead of many cities around the country, looking for opportunities to save money – LED lights translate to about a 50 percent cost savings – as well as serve as portals for deploying other pieces of sensing and communications hardware to support a range of smart city projects.
The T-Light Galaxy system can support sensors which can gather data related to traffic counts, or an ability to communicate with “smart” utility meters.
“When you think about it, water meters are battery operated devices. So, the less energy they have to expend on communication, the longer they last. Using a streetlight to collect the data from a water meter is a very powerful capability that didn’t really exist before,” said Hirsch.
Air-quality, sewerage monitoring, pressure sensing for water systems are other capabilities can be supported by the wireless system.
“There’s a bunch of different applications that can use these type of sensors,” Hirsch added.
The lights can also be programed to shine at vary intensities for residential or commercial locations.
“Not only does the Telematics Wireless system enable us to control and manage our streetlight operations far more efficiently and cost-effectively, it also provides Cleveland the backbone for more advanced, future-ready smart city applications like the high-definition images and our police department’s remote control of streetlights that can be dimmed or brightened throughout the city,” said Cleveland Public Power Commissioner Ivan Henderson, in a statement.
