Dunedin in New Zealand has become the latest regional city to get smart lighting technology from UK company Telensa, which will install 15,000 LED lights across the city over the next two years.
Telensa’s contract follows Broadspectrum (formerly Transfield Services) being awarded a seven-year $20 million contract to install and operate LEDs in Dunedin’s street lighting network where they will replace the city’s sodium lighting.
Dunedin’s smart lighting installation is being 85 percent funded by the New Zealand Transport Agency. The move follows policy changes in 2015 that enabled local authorities to replace existing road lights with LED and controls immediately, rather than wait until they reach the end of their useful life.
Telensa smart lighting is also operating in Whakatane and Wellington and in Australia in Palmerston and Darwin in the Northern Territory and on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Telensa said the lights would be wirelessly connected and managed by its PLANet management system that will enable light levels to be set at each location independently.
“The system will support the LEDs in reducing energy and maintenance costs, while improving the efficiency of maintenance through automatic fault reporting, and turning streetlight poles into hubs for smart city sensors,” Telensa said.
Telensa claims PLANet to be the world’s most deployed smart streetlight system, with a footprint of 1.7 million lights, and that it provides “an open, low-cost platform to add multiple sensor applications.”
Also, Telensa says it is working with Microsoft, Samsung SDS and Qualcomm technologies in the Urban Data Project to “help cities build future-proof operations driven by data intelligence, trust and transparency.”
