Cities around the world are actively deploying cutting-edge technology to ensure they can continue to invest in and meet the needs of growing communities. Located in the metropolitan area of Madrid, the City of Alcorcón is doing exactly that – and is taking steps to bring their vision of a smart city to life to achieve improved efficiencies, lower carbon emissions, safer neighborhoods and better quality of life for all citizens.

Alcorcón recently launched a smart city pilot project with Itron’s intelligent street lighting solution. The city, through its municipal services company ESMASA, is carrying out an energy efficiency program which includes upgrading existing streetlights to LEDs while also adding a Networked Lighting Controller (NLC) from Itron which provides the capability to dim and control lights while providing health status data and advanced configuration options. The networked streetlights form a robust industrial IoT (IIoT) canopy that serves as the foundation for additional smart cities services, such as air quality monitoring and traffic management.

To increase energy efficiency, the city is testing Itron’s solution for individual streetlight control using RF mesh connectivity and Itron’s industry-leading Streetlight.Vision (SLV) Central Management System (CMS) platform. The pilot includes the installation of 25 NLCs, 1 noise sensor, 1 people flow sensor and an RF mesh network. Itron’s multi-application network provides the city with a high performance, low latency and a high security network, building a strong foundation for future smart city applications.

In some cases, the design, deployment and management of outdoor lighting networks has become increasingly complex. Many lighting operators desire the benefits of greater energy efficiency, lower operational costs and the ability to add a range of smart city applications, but lack the in-house capabilities, resources and time to build and maintain these systems on their own. Itron has simplified lighting control projects by offering its streetlight control solution and CMS as a managed service. Leveraging Itron’s managed services will enable Alcorcón to gain the benefits of optimized energy efficiency and operational costs through a streamlined and lower-maintenance services-based implementation model.

This smart lighting and smart city pilot provides Alcorcón City and ESMASA the opportunity to expand the streetlight-based network further while exploring additional use cases. We hope that the pilot’s success inspires other cities in Europe and around the globe to experience the value of the smart lighting and smart city solutions Itron has to offer.