SMART LED STREET LIGHTING (PO36, 604-611)

The rapid development of smart technologies for public street lighting has introduced new opportunities and complexities. By embedding communication systems into street lights, this commonplace infrastructure can facilitate the transfer of data in the era of Internet of Things. Nevertheless, the prospect of street lights providing revolutionary services can be overhyped without full clarification of the short and long term costs and risks. Globally, there is widespread uptake of LED luminaires for public street lighting, in virtue of energy efficiency and complementary functionality with smart technologies. The power quality concerns due to augmented total harmonic distortion must however be recognised. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of introducing new smart technologies into what must continue to be a robust, reliable public lighting network.