by Shane Henson — December 24, 2012—IMS Research, a provider of market research and consultancy to the global electronics industry, forecasts that the uptake of smart lighting systems will increase considerably over the next five years, with more than 13.6 million smart street lighting components being shipped between 2010 to 2017. For facilities managers, the changes would particularly impact those with large, multifacility campuses and extensive outdoor lighting, such as on college and university campuses.
According to IMS Research’s recently published report, The World Market for Connected Lighting Controls—2012 Edition, the number of smart street lighting devices shipped will increase over the next five years to more than 3.4 million in 2017. Retrofit connectivity modules are projected to account for the majority of these shipments, with most street smart lighting installations taking advantage of existing street lights.
The desire to make street lighting more energy efficient is one of the main drivers behind the expected uptake of smart street lighting systems, notes the report. While this can be done by replacing existing street lighting sources with light-emitting diode (LED) street lights, which can dramatically reduce energy consumption, adding lighting controls is a lower cost solution. Another important benefit of installing lighting controls is the ability to reduce maintenance costs. Traditionally, faults are reported by the public, or by routine maintenance vans; however, with street lighting control systems, faults can be detected centrally, reducing the need for routine maintenance checks.
Another key driver behind the uptake of street lighting controls is the creation of an expandable infrastructure, says IMS Research. By installing an intelligent lighting control system, cities can scale it up to manage other systems and improve their energy use and performance. Other systems that can also be integrated include traffic signals, energy meters, pollution sensors, parking-lot lights, and traffic sensors. These can all been integrated using the street-lighting control system as the backbone to provide connectivity. This can further reduce energy consumption as well as improving the performance of other systems and functions in a municipal region, effectively creating a “smart city.”
