Guess how much a city's street lighting costs a year? San Jose, California is the 10th largest city in the United States, and the city spends $3.5 million a year. If you count the maintenance and replacement of street lights, the cost will be much higher.
The streetlight system is both old and wasteful, and it is impossible to predict potential failures. It is too late to find out. Sometimes, when the lights are not turned on, the lights are turned on, and a lot of energy is wasted; if a little bird droppings fall on the light sensor, the system will have problems.
San Jose is also facing another problem. In the 1980s, the city replaced low-efficiency mercury lamps with low-pressure sodium lamps, hoping to save energy on the one hand, and reduce light pollution on the other, helping the nearby Lectra Observatory (LickObservatory for astronomical research. San Jose Traffic Authority Director Jim According to JimHelmer, the leaders of San Jose thought it was a wise move. The total benefits include: darker sky, improved astronomical research, more energy savings, and extended lamp life. One problem: the light of the sodium lamp is yellow. The color of the car, the fence and the traffic signal will be distorted, which often confuses the driver and affects the effect of the traffic camera.
The San Jose GreenVision project is a 15-year project with the goal of halving per capita energy consumption and realizing that all energy is sourced from renewable sources. As part of the project, the city's pilot project announced this week will use smarter, more energy-efficient LED bulbs and monitor streetlights through intelligent networks.
The pilot project is scheduled to start this summer, and local smart grid company Echelon will be responsible for installing 125 LED street lights. Echelon is widely known for its smart meters. The meter is essentially a thermostat that delivers real-time energy usage information to consumers and suppliers.
Streetlight networks and smart grids operate in a similar manner. Through the city's wireless (wi-fi) network, Echelon's network technology enables lights to deliver real-time data, telling people about the status and performance of each lamp. This way, maintenance personnel no longer have to search for broken bulbs. (If the city does not have a wireless network, Echelon's technology can also be used via power lines.)
In this way, the city can monitor energy consumption, predict power outages and dim lighting, and easily save energy by controlling the main switch.
Jeff Lund, vice president of business development at Echelon, said: The energy consumption of LED lights is inherently low. By incorporating it into the network, people can do intelligent operations. At the end of the sports competition or after the bar is closed, the street lights will light up. After the night, the lights can be dimmed. In the event of an emergency, you can also cause the lights to start flashing and direct people to the right place.
The city government is also striving for financial support for the federal stimulus package for this project. If funds are obtained, the city government will renovate a total of 65,000 lamps and lanterns. City officials predict that this will reduce energy consumption by 40%. Two cities that have introduced the entire network of intelligent street lights have achieved these goals. According to Echelon, the energy consumption in Milton Keynes, UK, has been reduced by 40%, while the operating cost of 250,000 street lamps in Oslo, Norway has been reduced by 60%. All street lamps in Oslo use hydropower. If the city uses fossil fuels to generate electricity, then this 60% reduction is equivalent to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by 1,440 tons per year.
Now, with the decline in tax revenues, American cities are looking for ways to cut their budgets. In this context, the San Jose pilot project will be closely watched. Echelon has conducted proof-of-concept demonstrations in San Francisco and Anchorage, and there will be more cities joining the ranks in the future. Lund said: The energy consumption of street lamps is one of the major operating costs of cities. The focus is on reducing costs while improving quality.
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