ww

w.u

tilit

y-bu

sine

ss.o

rg

15

Utility Business Winter 2013

14

SMAR

T ST

REET

LIG

HTS

: TH

E FA

ST T

RACK

TO

SMAR

T CI

TY V

ALU

E

UTILITY BUSINESS TRANSFORMING THE WAY CUSTOMERS ENGAGE WITH ENERGY

Smart Street LightsThe Fast Track to Smart City Value

Cities have recently become a focal point for sustainable economic growth.More than half the world’s population now lives in cities and generates more than 80% of global GDP.

Such high stakes have driven investment in smart city initiatives to fuel development as well as build the competitive advantages necessary to attract business and retain skilled workers.

A recent Arup report highlights the UK’s leadership position in this market, with the potential to represent 10% of $400B global smart city market by 2020. (Global Market Opportunities and UK Capabilities for future smart cities).

Street lights are forming an increasingly important role within smart city development. As a standalone application the upgrade and networking of street lighting is now a proven and popular component of many city programs. With all cities looking for energy savings lighting has moved to the top of the priority list - largely due to the 80% drop in LED pricing over the last 5 years which has slashed the payback period and transformed the business case.

In addition to these core savings however many cities are recognizing that this infrastructure upgrade presents a longer term opportunity to deploy a new multi-application network across the city to support a huge gambit of current and future smart city and smart grid applications.

Street Lights TodayCities typically allocate up to 40% of their energy budget on street lights with little cost leverage. Community perception is often negative when damaged or failed lights go without repair. Identification of failed lights requires costly scouting teams throughout the city and reports from citizens. Current operational processes result in error prone management of assets. As a result, operational spending lacks predictably and contributes to budget overruns.

Networked street lights represent a high impact starting point for building smart city value. Cities from across the world including those in UK are already deploying energy-efficient LEDs or HID lamps to replace older street lights.

Networked street lights can:• Delivermorethan50%inenergyandoperationalsavings• Helpcity’smeetcarbonreductiontargets• Provideaplatformforadditionalsmartcityandsmartgridapplications

Unlocking Smart City and Smart Grid Value Through LightingA wide range of products and applications are emerging to enable cities and grid operators to modernize services and optimize systems. The vast majority of these require reliable, cost effective and efficient 2 way Machine to Machine communication (M2M).

Applications innovate across a diverse range of areas deliver benefits to a combination of stakeholders including the city, energy networks, businesses and consumers. Examples include traffic monitoring and signaling, distributed renewables, smart metering, electric vehicle management, demand response programs, parking management and quality measurement to name a few.

The networking of street lighting presents an ideal opportunity to enable network connectivity for these types of applications at no extra cost, creating a city wide canopy of dedicated, reliable M2M communication.

Figure 1 illustrates the integration of multiple smart city applications supported by a single network established via the initial smart street lighting business value.

By Brian McGuigan, UK & Ireland Smart Cities Lead,Silver Spring Networks UK & Ireland

Smart Street Lighting - Key Elements

Street Lights – Network Foundationfor Growing Value

One network for many city applications

The Silver Spring smart street lights solution overview Figure 2 outlines the major elements:

The capabilities of the Silver Spring solution offer a fast path to production deployment and community impact. Well-tested services ensure an operational street light network with support many smart city applications. Leading cities are working together with Silver Spring to continuously grow the value of their smart city applications. Your street lighting initiative can similarly benefit from our experience accelerating smart city value.

To discuss Smart Street Lighting and our value please contact our UK & Ireland Smart Cities lead Brian McGuigan atbmcguigan@silverspringnet.com

Five critical areas to fast track value

Smart street lights yield significant energy and operational savings. To capitalize on the opportunity and build maximum ongoing value, five critical areas must be evaluated:

• Choose a solution based on standards for maximum flexibility and business agility

Silver Spring pioneered the use of the Internet Protocol (IPv6) in smart grid networks. With smart street lights, demand flexibility and choice in photocells and luminaires combined with agile control system integration.

• Reduce risk by building on a platform proven at scale

Smart streetlights require a resilient, high-availability network designed to support a rich and growing variety of smart city endpoints.

• Increase leverage by adopting a network that supports multiple applications

The Silver Spring network offers the performance, reliability, and capacity needed to support multiple applications. A common network supporting multiple applications saves time and money.

• Look for built-in security with proven processes and technology

Policy management, multi-layer protection and monitoring are built into the platform, offering unparalleled levels of security. Apply our proven security technology and processes to your smart city applications as well.

• Gain choice from a well-managed and thriving ecosystem

Use open standards to gain the advantages of proven and well-established business practices, certification procedures, and integration standards.

The Silver Spring solution combines software, hardware and services to empower operators to reduce costs by up to 50% while improving community safety and environmental impact.