The challenges of street lighting infrastructure highlighted in the call can all be consolidated into the following categories:People’s well-being and sense of security, Integration of renewable energy production and provision of new services, Energy-efficiency and life-cycle costs.
These challenges can be addressed through intelligent street lightning nano-grids. They will transform the existing street lighting infrastructure into the city’s public electricity network. This innovation would offer numerous possibilities for implementation of novel energy-exchange services and endorse provident use of energy and infrastructure. Moreover, the technology can improve the continuity of services in different situations, including crisis scenarios. Intelligent street lightning nano-grids are based on a holistic approach combining the state-of-the-art knowledge and innovation from multiple areas, including:
a) Energy-efficient lights that can be smartly controlled as needed, based on energy-saving LED technology. It would enable reduction of light pollution in cities, making cities environment more secure, convenient and healthy.
b) Flexible management system that is configured according to the needs of a specific city and region. The control system enables interfacing with various technical systems (energy meters, recorders and sensors) to enable integration with the city’s existing IT systems.
c) Further improvement in energy efficiency, usage of materials and controllability by implementation of direct current technology, with reduced number of energy conversion steps. It allows mitigation the problems related to power quality and simplifies integration of various assets and their interaction.
