Foraying into future: Benefits of smart lighting solutions in smart cities

Since the time we were a kid in the '90s, technology has drastically transformed our life. From flying cars to hi-tech lights, now we could actually imagine a futuristic scenario like The Jetsons.

When it comes to electrical infrastructure, lighting can be considered as the backbone in a city and is one of the most daunting in terms of high energy consumption and resource expenditure. As the world’s population is fast growing, technology becomes more advanced and energy resources are becoming even more important to manage without spending hefty amount.

Infrastructure and services play a key role in enabling a city to grow and eventually turn into a smart city. With Prime Minister’s vision of creating 100 smart cities, the thought leaders have put their efforts to transform their city by deploying smart solutions to improve living standards. Taking technological advancements into consideration, smart cities create efficiencies, improve sustainability, create economic development, and enhance the quality of life. In a smart city, technologies such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT) come together to offer you a better, more positive living experience.

By now, we all have clarity that traditional lighting sources need to upgrade to smart LED lighting to meet the requirements of the modern population. As per several reports, it has been estimated that switching to smart LED lighting could save 40% of total lighting energy.

How smart can light be?

Smart lighting is becoming a part of a connected ecosystem, creating smart buildings in our cities for a sustainable and greener tomorrow.

Smart street lighting can be used to monitor traffic flow, identify empty car parking spaces, and environmental impact monitoring. It can also act as a Wi-Fi router for public internet access.

When it comes to connected lighting in buildings, managers can monitor energy consumption, organise preventive maintenance and receive customised information to suit their business.

The possibility for lighting to enrich smart cities from both a commercial and domestic perspective is vast and huge.

Why you should consider smart lighting solutions?

Smart lighting solutions using networked technology represent an exciting chance for cities or communities to get smarter. From government and city planners to consumers, significant benefits become available to everyone which include:

• Huge reduction of energy
• Decrease in maintenance cost
• Increased public safety due to better lighting solutions
• Safer traffic due to increased visibility of hazards
• Environmental impact due to reduced energy consumption

Additional opportunities include:

• Mobile broadband connectivity
• Traffic light controls
• Smart parking
• Traffic management
• Electric vehicle charging stations
• Environmental monitoring
• Public safety through video cameras

Being one of the pioneers for several decades, Bajaj Electricals has successfully completed smart lighting projects in many parts of India including the magnificent Jaipur.

How did we illuminate the Pink City?

Being one of the popular tourist destinations in India, smart city lighting was imperative for this city. One of the steps that the development authority took was to install smart lighting to save energy and manpower as well as bring down the carbon footprint of the city. There were many hurdles that needs to overcome such as frequent maintenance, power consumption, not having consistent lighting on the road etc.

Bajaj Electricals along with CISCO provided a smart street lighting solution that took care of all the concern areas of the development authority. With the project being implemented, the energy was saved up to 72%, thereby reducing costs. It also kept a track on health and performance of luminaire by receiving the first level of diagnosis, thus saving time, power consumption, wattage, current and life.

Smart lighting can be a backbone for a smart city network enabling them for a sustainable tomorrow.

As cities look at transforming into smart cities, what are we waiting?