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Dec 17, 2023

Grand Rapids to install new smart streetlights

by: Amanda Porter Posted: Jul 26, 2023 / 10:00 PM EDT Updated: Jul 26, 2023 / 11:16 PM EDT GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — New streetlights with cutting-edge technology will soon be installed in Grand

by: Amanda Porter

Posted: Jul 26, 2023 / 10:00 PM EDT

Updated: Jul 26, 2023 / 11:16 PM EDT

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — New streetlights with cutting-edge technology will soon be installed in Grand Rapids. The new, smart lighting nodes will help improve safety and cut down on energy costs.

Starting next year, Grand Rapids will be able to control city lights remotely on a cloud platform. This means the city will know exactly where a streetlight needs to be replaced — reducing labor, saving energy costs and increasing the light’s lifespan.

Grand Rapids is upgrading its LED streetlights and soon will be an illuminated smart city. Smart street lighting nodes by the Canadian company Dimonoff will be installed.

“It literally sits on top of regular LED streetlights,” said Bernard Tetu.

Tetu is Dimonoff’s CEO, who said Grand Rapids will have cloud access to remotely control the streetlights.

“It looks a lot like a Google map dashboard, but you see all the little dots, which are streetlights and streetlight controllers. And with various colors and shapes, you will be presented with the areas where you have normal lighting, but also problematic assets,” said Tetu.

Service and labor maintenance costs will be reduced.

“You don’t have people driving around the city where there are assets that are damaged. You know it already,” Tetu said.

More than 18,000 smart streetlights nodes will be installed on top of Grand Rapids luminaries.

The smart color-changing aspect allows the city to lower costs by dimming the lights.

“We are running some cities at 45% of their capacity. When you do that, you actually run them cooler, or less warm because they consume less power,” said Tetu.

That increases the lifespan of the streetlights.

“A regular HID (High Intensity Discharge) lightbulb lifetime was about 4 and a half, five years. Now it’s 15 years, typically, and if you run them cooler it will even increase them probably up to 20 years,” said Tetu.

Energy and maintenance costs aren’t the only benefits.

“Lighting is actually an asset for security in the city,” said Tetu.

They also allow for other technological uses, said Tetu, “If you want to play music, or even announce Amber Alerts … things like that. The platform that Grand Rapids actually acquired can do all those various Internet of Things.”

The network that will be created sits 30 feet in the air on every streetlight pole, creating a spiderweb of information.

“You can re-use it for other applications from listening to music, or water level sensors, or even playing music and various places or in some cases we apply it for parking space detection,” said Tetu.

The smart lighting nodes are set to be installed by the first quarter of 2024.

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