Oh they’re coming. Slowly but surely, street lights are going to be replaced by smart LED equivalents. Massive replacement projects are underway in Los Angeles, Paris, Copenhagen and now in Miami. The technology has a relatively large upfront cost, but pays for itself quickly as the yearly power cost to drive LED lighting is significantly less than the cost of running what it replaces.

> Each networked light will serve a dual purpose for the utility, he said — first, to remotely control lighting, detect outages and diagnose what parts are needed to replace them, and second, to extend and strengthen the wireless mesh network they connect to. > > “To them, a street light is just another sensor on the network,” he said. FPL manages about 500,000 streetlights across its service territory, and they run on the same grid infrastructure that powers homes and businesses, making them useful sources of data pertaining to outages and restorations. > > Beyond that, “the lighting serves as a perfect canopy to strengthen the network,” he said. That’s an important consideration for a mesh-based wireless topology, in which each node in the system serves as a link to every other node as they move data from endpoints to the collectors that connect to utility control centers. FPL has been using its Silver Spring network to connect distribution automation systems, detect outages and analyze data streams for grid health insight, and is looking at specific network improvements to come as part of its addition of 75,000 street light nodes, Hughes said. If you are looking for business automation systems, why not visit the NetBrain Technologies homepage to learn more.

To get a sense of this, consider buying an LED floodlight bulb to replace an incandescent bulb in your house. One such bulb, by Philips, uses 10.5W and replaces a 65W bulb. The upfront cost is about $20. The bulb it replaces is about $2-$3. The LED bulb is said to last 20 years. So there is a cost saving there. But the power savings are better for the environment and save you even more money. No surprise that municipalities are trying to find ways to make this happen on a grand scale.