Telenor helps cut cost of lighting Oslo’s streets

The streetlights of the future are much smarter than the streetlights of today. Instead of lights running on full power all the time, tomorrow’s streetlights will be controlled individually and with varying strength depending on need.

”Through mobile technology, today’s operating expenses when it comes to lighting the streets can be reduced by 30 to 50 percent and energy expenses by 40 to 60 percent. In total, we are talking about enormous sums,” said Tom Kristoffersen, a department head for the City of Oslo.

Big savings

”Norwegian municipalities can save significant amounts by introducing this type of technology. This can also enable great up-selling possibilities in an exciting market,” said Rune Rindalsholt, who works in customer relations with public administration for Telenor.

”Through this new way of working, we are also strengthening our relationship with the customer,” he added.

Norway’s capital city uses more than 60 million kroner on street lighting each year and the city is on target with the first stage of its upgrade to new street lighting by the end of November.

SIM card

The many control points that run the city’s 80,000 streetlights will get new and high-tech insides. With a modem and SIM card, the streetlights can now be run from a webpage.

”The SIM card enables communication between the control unit and the management portal. When there is an error in a light or a circuit, a message will be sent over the mobile network,” said Tore Larsen, who works with Telenor in delivering M2M technology.

A few other municipalities are also starting to set up more intelligent street lighting, but on a larger scale. The fact that Oslo is on board is important.

”The city of Oslo is the driver that helps make other municipalities aware of the great economic and environmental savings that can result by moving over to a new and better technology,” said Larsen.

A drain on the budget

The lighting of streets, parks and lighted trails accounts for 20 to 40 percent of the total expenses in the running and maintenance of streets and roads, according to Vegforum for cities and towns.

”Outdated technology means in practice that the bulbs are lit for an unnecessary period of time. Today the lights are turned on and off according to daylight, through the help of photocells. The margin for error is 40-45 minutes for each of the 80,000 fixtures each day,” said Tom Kristoffersen in Oslo Municipality.

After the transition to the new control system, the lights will be turned on and off via the web, in connection with the time of sunrise and sunset.

”We are now swapping the core of the control system. To achieve full effect, we are swapping the fixtures in each streetlight as well. We are already done this in several test areas. In Oppsal, we managed to reduce energy use by a total of 62 percent,” said Kristoffersen.

The upcoming budget allocations will determine the rate of the swap of fixtures.

Better control

With the new fixtures in place, much can be saved when it comes to maintenance as well.

”Today, a burnt out streetlight is reported in via tips from the public or through discovery upon inspection. Through the new technology, we will get an immediate message when a lamp has burned out, alerting us as to which one it is,” said Kristoffersen.

Through additional development, the system will be capable of providing an alert as to why the streetlight has burnt out, whether it was an electrical error or due to age. The operator can also see how many hours the bulb has been out and can then better plan the shift of the bulb.