Municipal governments worldwide are facing an ever-growing number of challenges, such as climate change and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the resources they have on hand to deal with such crises continue to dwindle, especially funding and personnel.

The concept of the smart city has attracted increasing attention as an overall solution to systemic challenges because of its potential to revolutionize the management of municipal services while reducing waste and costs. Within the framework of a smart city, implementing intelligent streetlights provides local governments with the opportunity to solve multiple problems at once. In addition to energy savings due to higher efficiency and reduced personnel costs because of better management, smart streetlights are an excellent platform for creating information networks because they must be deployed everywhere.

Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd. specializes in the research and development, manufacture and sales of optoelectronic semiconductor components and modules. Everlight is a leading global supplier of LEDs and related solutions, with distribution networks in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Headquartered in Taipei, the firm conducts all of its research and development of smart LED streetlights in Taiwan, with manufacturing bases in Miaoli County’s Yuanli and Tongluo townships, and New Taipei City’s Shulin and Tucheng districts.

Everlight LEDs provide reliability and cost savings
Since its founding in 1983, Everlight has become one of the world’s top five LED manufacturers thanks to its commitment to supplying top-notch products and excellent service. This leadership was built on continuous investment in innovative technology and mastering the upstream supply chain.

Replacing a 400-Watt mercury-vapor light with a 101-Watt Everlight high-performance LED yields energy savings of about 75 percent. In addition to maintaining the long service life and high light output characteristics of the traditional lights, LEDs also provide improved color rendition.

Since 2015, Everlight has been helping local governments in Taiwan’s Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin and Yilan counties, as well as in Taichung and Kaohsiung, among others, with their initiatives to replace traditional mercury-vapor streetlights with high-performance LEDs. The company has also worked with municipal governments in other nations, including in the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, on initiatives to replace their mercury-vapor lights with LED streetlights.

Networked smart LED streetlights create the communications backbone for Taoyuan’s smart city program
In July 2019, the Taoyuan City Government rolled out an initiative to replace its traditional streetlights with smart LEDs, increasing efficiency and reducing maintenance costs. The 15-year, NT$4.5 billion project aims to create the world’s first smart city with completely networked streetlights. About 160,000 smart LED streetlights are to be deployed in the city and eventually linked to a back-end management platform for maintenance and repair.

Taoyuan’s original streetlights annually cost the city government about NT$219 million in electricity alone. The new LED streetlights are expected to yield a nearly 70 percent reduction in power consumption, resulting in a projected annual electricity bill of NT$66 million in 2021. In addition, the networked nature of the new streetlights allows them to be connected to the back-end platform for more efficient management of daily tasks, resources and energy consumption.

Everlight is collaborating with a major local telecom and other partners to supply the smart streetlights that will lay the groundwork for a complete smart city solution in southern Taoyuan. Everlight was selected for the project due to its long-standing commitment to integrating the information and communications technology and electronics industries into lighting, as well as its vast experience developing tailored solutions that has made it a trusted partner of local governments. Over the past decade, Everlight has also been invited to industry and academic forums to lend its expertise in the formulation and implementation of product specifications.

For the Taoyuan project, Everlight and its partners are providing the city government with smart streetlights, utility poles and the back-end management system. The utility poles not only house the smart lights, but also integrate communications equipment enabling remote management of all linked applications. This allows city officials to remotely monitor the status of the streetlights and carry out routine tasks such as turning units on and off, adjusting light output and scheduling maintenance.

Thanks to their networking capabilities, the smart LED streetlights are a perfect platform for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. As a light source with a high vantage point, they provide an optimal location for the placement of IP surveillance cameras. The streetlights’ elevation also makes them ideal platforms for remote sensing of things like temperature, humidity and precipitation. Other applications made possible by the networked smart LED streetlights include battery-swap stations for electric vehicles and smart parking systems.

SELLING POINTS

• Fully controlled upstream supply chain from research and development to production based in Taiwan
• High-performance 101W LEDs provide longer longevity and equivalent illumination of traditional 400W mercury-vapor lamps, reducing energy costs by about 75 percent and improving color rendition
• Smart LED streetlights projected to decrease energy costs by 70 percent from traditional predecessors
• Back-end management platform allows for remote monitoring and administration of streetlights
• Networked streetlights provide perfect platform for IoT applications and serve as backbone for smart city solutions