Streetlights in Region 2000 "get smart"
March 25, 2010
Streetlights are getting smarter in Region 2000.
The Region 2000 Local Government Council was awarded a $200,000 energy conservation grant this week to install new Smartlights™ to compare and test energy savings.
Six Region 2000 communities will make up a regional test site for “intelligent” streetlights that are modified to send signals back to a monitoring station. According to Gary Christie, Executive Director of the Region 2000 Local Government Council, this will allow operators to optimize energy consumption and manage maintenance.
“This project has real potential to bring about cost savings for electric companies and our localities,” Gary said. “These savings can be redirected to other essential public services and the reduced energy consumption is a plus for the environment.”
Smartlights™ is a trademarked product of locally owned wireless firm Innovative Wireless Technologies (IWT), based in Forest. Each of the six localities will place a version of the Smartlights™ product in their town or city during this year. A network control center will be established in the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research’s (CAER’s) facility in the New London Business and Technology Park, planned for completion later this year. Data from the lights will be monitored and analyzed there.
The CAER will work with area universities, IWT, and utility companies to take advantage of the most cost effective lighting processes for local governments.
“This is a great example of what the CAER was created to facilitate,” said Bob Bailey, Executive Director of the Center. “It takes innovation from a local company and adds the collaborative partnerships needed to bring it to market.”
The grant came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. More than $13 million in energy conservation grants were awarded to local governments across the Commonwealth for a total of 39 projects.
The Smartlights™ project will include Lynchburg, Altavista, Town of Amherst, Town of Appomattox, Bedford City and Brookneal.