streetlight system has been installed in Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes Council Reduces Energy Use by 40% with Echelon Technology.
Today announced that the city of Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom is using Echelon's technology to remotely control and monitor streetlights in the city. The monitored streetlight system has been installed in over 400 streetlights as a trial project, with 10,000 additional streetlights planned to be installed over the next three years following a successful tender process. The new system, which includes smart electronic ballasts from SELC Ireland and enterprise monitoring software from Streetlight.Vision, has reduced energy usage by 40 percent, increased security and safety in the city and reduced maintenance costs. The project represents a major change in the way street lighting is designed and maintained in the city and is one of the largest trial schemes of its type in the U.K.

Increasing energy costs as well as environmental factors are pushing cities to find innovative solutions to modernize their streetlight networks. In a typical city, almost 40 percent of the electricity budget is consumed by streetlights. When combined with rising energy costs in recent years, many cities are now being forced to look at new technologies and find a more efficient way of lighting their cities. Furthermore, current European Union environmental initiatives call for the elimination of products contributing to heavy metal pollution. Replacing older lighting ballasts that may contain mercury with newer, electronic ballasts can help alleviate this problem. It is now becoming strategic and compelling for cities to implement solutions to measure, analyze, and reduce electricity use in order to reduce energy costs and contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, as required by the Kyoto Protocol and various European initiatives.

The city of Oslo, Norway, is using a similar solution to reduce energy consumption by 62 percent. As part of its new intelligent outdoor lighting system, Oslo is replacing mechanical ballasts in its 55,000 streetlights with electronic ballasts that communicate over existing power lines using Echelon's power line technology. The system remotely monitors and controls the lights, dimming them based on traffic, weather and available light. It also analyzes lamp behavior and identifies lamp failures. Various cities in Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands and Spain are also using Echelon's technology and products in streetlight solutions to reduce energy consumption.