Image: Pinacl
Aberdeen is to become one of the first cities in Scotland to install an intelligent lighting system which can be controlled, dimmed and remotely monitor faults.
A total of 3,500 controllers are to be fitted to street lights and the system, which is part of Aberdeen City Council’s (ACC) digital transformation.
The intelligent street lighting project involves retrospectively fitting current LED street lights with a unit, and also adding the unit to new LED lamps before they are installed. The units are part of a configuration management system (CMS) and then link up to a cloud-based intelligent network which will have other smart solutions added to it.
A £9m, seven-year rolling program of replacing the old inefficient and expensive street lighting with more efficient and cost-effective LED lighting is already taking place.
Energy costs for street lighting in Aberdeen as of December 2015 were £2m per year which is estimated to fall to £1.1m per year after all the street lighting has been replaced with LED lanterns. The intelligent system allows the lights to be dimmed to minimal legal limits when needed.
The company installing the intelligent lighting system is specialist smart solutions firm Pinacl. Alasdair Rettie, technical director at Pinacl, said: “The new city-wide intelligent network provides a third layer of connectivity that will allow Aberdeen City council to efficiently deploy a variety of Smart City solutions across the city”.
The project is being funded by ACC for £525,000, along with £349,400 from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund).
Aberdeen City Council operational delivery convener Councillor John Wheeler said: “We are at the forefront of transforming the digital infrastructure in Aberdeen which will bring benefits not only to the council through savings, but also to residents by being smarter about getting our lights repaired.
“World-class connectivity is important in our economic and social ambitions for the city and it’s fantastic that we are one of the first cities in Scotland to install an intelligent lighting system.”
