Smart cities on fast track

Councils across Australia are adopting smart technologies to improve livability and efficiency.

The Wyndham City Council in Victoria is using “temperature sensors built into LED streetlights to generate a real-time high-resolution heat map” for their community, according to Marc Cassanet, Environment and Sustainability Coordinator. The project is being implemented in collaboration with Ironbark Sustainability, knowledge partner for the Australian Smart Lighting Summit, and Powercor Australia as distributor.

The Australian Smart Lighting Summit, an annual lighting event focused on street, outdoor, urban and public lighting, is returning to Melbourne this September. To be held from 11–12 September 2018 at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the event will feature over 35 Australian and international speakers. It is expected to attract over 150 delegates.

Smart city initiatives are also being implemented in other states across Australia. For example, the City of Gold Coast is implementing one of Queensland’s largest LED retrofitting projects. The city began a large-scale rollout of smart, connected street lighting earlier this year, just in time for the Commonwealth Games. This initiative gave city officials an opportunity to test varying levels of energy consumption via metered and unmetered streetlights. This, combined with the lighting unit’s ability to be controlled at the tap of a button, allows users to dim certain streetlights or change their colour output.

The Executive Coordinator of the Energy Management Program at the City of Gold Coast, Pamela Bessette, will provide more insights on the project at the Australian Smart Lighting Summit.

The City of Ipswich is using sensor networks to support its smart city plans. The sensor networks lay the platform for community and commercial opportunities, testing technology in the areas of water, waste and lighting management, solar energy, precinct maintenance, traffic management and user engagement, according to the City of Ipswich. Sharon Boyle, Executive Research Officer, Works, Parks and Recreation Department, Ipswich City Council will discuss the project. 

Other speakers include: Paul Brown, Managing Director, Ironbark Sustainability; Ian Dryden, Principal – Industrial Design, City of Melbourne; Keith Henry, Technical Sales Manager, ANZ, Telensa Systems; Scotty Hutto, Lighting Services Manager at Georgia Power Co., US; Martin Valentine, Global Design Director, Ligman Lighting; James Quigley, Senior Street Lighting Engineer, Bureau of Street Lighting, City of Los Angeles, US.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/robu_s