Suffolk CC is to partner with street lighting and smart city technology specialist Telensa, as part of plans to deploy 100 sensor in its smart street lighting infrastructure to help monitor traffic, road condition and air quality metrics.
The project forms part of one of the DfT-funded ADEPT Live Labs programmes that will run until 2021. The main aim of the A Smarter Suffolk Live Lab is to examine smart technology capability across Suffolk’s urban and rural environment, combined with fully exploring how any authority’s street lighting infrastructure adopts a far broader social function and potentially act as a future income generator.
The University of Suffolk will evaluate the societal and financial benefits of the data collected, enabling the Council to make informed decisions about which ones to introduce at large scale.
The project uses Telensa’s Urban IQ, an open solution enabling cities to choose their preferred sensors, use multiple networks to connect them, and to visualise all data collected in one place. An important element in the solution is the Microsoft Azure IoT Central platform, providing cloud connectivity, device and data management. The sensors connected include traffic (Tag Master), wind (GILL), road temperature (Vaisala), air quality (Aeroqual) and waste (FarSite).
Suffolk County Council has a long track record of introducing smart technologies with Telensa. All 65,000 of its streetlights are wirelessly controlled, saving over £1m per year. More recently Suffolk pioneered the use of traffic-adaptive lighting to further reduce energy costs and CO2 emissions from its highway lighting.
“We’re committed to delivering a better road network and we know that the right smart technologies will play a crucial role,” said Richard Webster, Street Lighting Manager at Suffolk County Council & Suffolk Highways. “We are delighted to be working with long-term partner Telensa as we create a sustainable smart places strategy that can adapt to the County’s evolving urban and rural needs.”
“Suffolk continues to take a refreshing value-driven approach to the introduction of smart technologies, and we are excited to expand our long-standing relationship in the Live Labs project,” said Will Gibson, Chief Commercial Officer & Founder of Telensa. “This is yet more evidence that connected street lighting is the natural and most cost-effective foundation for smart highways technologies.”
