Smart city initiatives: Street lights

Abstract

In the near future, smart city technologies could play a fundamental role in urban sustainable development; economically, socially, and environmentally. Smart cities bring new ways to generate important revenue for cities, wealth for citizens, information for society, and efficiency for businesses and government. As energy prices and concern over climate change have increased, cities have been proactive in exploring ‘smart’ ways to reduce energy (heat and electricity) consumption, public and private alike. Street lighting, which is supported through the local budget, is one of the main expenses related to public electricity consumption. A relatively new method that has been implemented to reduce electricity expenditures has been to replace conventional street lights with LED based street lights in order to save energy. These new type of street lights are also low-maintenance, making for a more environmentally and economically friendly configuration. They can be programmed to be dimmed to a lower level if there is no vehicle or pedestrian traffic and have the power increased as traffic is sensed. This paper explores only the benefits of switching from incandescent street lights to LED based street lamps. Specifically, it shows the cost savings and greenhouse gas savings from switching from the incandescent lights to the LED lamps.