City of Vaughan to deploy smart streetlighting system

A citywide LED streetlight retrofit and upgrade programme aims to improve road safety, reduce energy consumption and emissions and is expected to achieve $1m in annual cost-savings.

Smartcitiesworld.net
July 29, 2021

The Canadian City of Vaughan, Ontario, has embarked on an LED streetlight retrofit programme that aims to improve road safety and is forecast to achieve annual cost savings of $1m.

Located on Toronto’s northern border and one of Canada’s fastest growing cities, Vaughan will deploy Telensa’s PLANet intelligent streetlighting system.

The city-wide retrofit programme includes replacing Vaughan’s 23,000 streetlights with energy-efficient LEDs combined with Telensa wireless controls.

Prior to the installation of the new smart controls, the streetlights accounted for approximately 20 per cent of the city’s overall energy consumption.

The streetlight retrofit programme:

• has upgraded streetlights to improve road safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers
• reduced energy consumption, costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the operation of the City’s streetlight network
• and is expected to achieve approximately $1m in cost savings annually through a reduction in energy consumption.
• The LED programme is backed by the City’s Corporate Energy Fund, which is designed specifically to financially support and implement energy retrofit projects.

“Our LED streetlight retrofit programme provides a safer, more agreeable lit environment for citizens. It also saves money and reduces our carbon footprint, so it’s a win-win,” said Jack Graziosi, director -- infrastructure delivery, City of Vaughan.

“Adding Telensa wireless controls future-proofs our lighting operation and provides a platform for adding smart city sensors. This key infrastructure initiative aligns with the City’s Service Excellence Strategic Plan (2018-2022) with respect to environmental stewardship and operational performance priorities.”

Telensa’s PLANet is an end-to-end intelligent street lighting solution, consisting of wireless nodes connecting individual lights, a dedicated wireless network owned by the city, and a central management application.

The system pays for itself in reduced energy and maintenance costs, improves quality of service through automatic fault reporting, and turns streetlight poles into hubs for smart city sensors.

“Our LED streetlight retrofit programme provides a safer, more agreeable lit environment for citizens. It also saves money and reduces our carbon footprint”

“We’re delighted to partner with Vaughan, a city with a track record of innovation in energy savings and greenhouse gas reducing technologies,” added Andy Gowen, CEO, Telensa.

“We’re looking forward to working together in future on low-cost smart city applications, enabled by the City’s new lighting network.”

Telensa, is a connected street lighting provider and a Signify company that sells its systems under its own brand name and claims it has more than 2 million lights connected.