London to cut street lighting costs

Harvard Engineering has secured a contract with Transport for London (TfL) to install LeafNut, the company’s wireless monitoring and control system for street lighting. The system will initially be deployed across 35,000 of TfL’s 52,000 street lights as part of a new energy efficient lighting programme.

The programme, which also includes the installation of a new LED lighting system, aims to reduce carbon emissions in the future by approximately 9,700 tonnes a year and contribute to energy cost savings of £1.85mn a year by the time the system is implemented in 2016. Energy consumption is also expected to be reduced by 40%, compared to current levels.

Installing LeafNut, which is developed and manufactured at Harvard’s UK head office in West Yorkshire, will allow TfL to remotely monitor and manage street lighting, as well as dynamically control lighting levels at different times of night, says the company. The devices will also remotely record lighting failures, enabling maintenance crews to ensure that lighting levels are restored without delay.

Dana Skelley, director of asset management at TfL commented: ‘The performance and cost effectiveness of energy efficient lighting has improved considerably over the last few years. Our aim is to provide assets fit for the future and this programme to upgrade lighting on the capital’s busiest roads is a simple yet hugely effective way to not only reduce carbon emissions, but to also reduce costs whilst providing better lighting of our road network.’

LeafNut has been installed by over 100 local authorities across the world, from Sydney in Australia, to Zurs Ski Resort in Austria.