A Dutch firm has designed a cloud-based power saving device which it believes could be especially effective for municipalities wishing to save on power costs.
Frank Den Ridder, managing director of the Netherlands-based Vitalec, which is represented by WEG-Wise in South Africa, spoke to HumanIPO at the African Utilities Week (AUW) on a cloud based service designed to save power.
Vitelec’s power saving service is best described as a dynamic wireless lighting control system for public lighting.
“What we have is a small unit… we put it inside the luminaire and it completely controls luminaire… For every luminaire there’s one unit and [they are] all connected to each other and in the end there is a gateway that connects the group… to a back office, a cloud served device,” said Den Ridder.
Den Ridder said this system can be effective for municipalities, which control street lights. At around 7pm, street lights are usually switched on “until people go to bed around midnight,” after which the system dims the street lights.
For example, the street lights are first dimmed down to approximately 70 per cent or 30 per cent, but the system is designed to reduce brightness to 10 per cent.
Depending on the position, design and function, a single street light’s dissipated power varies between 70 and 150 watts.
Furthermore, the system is designed to revert back to 100 per cent illumination should a vehicle be moving along the dimmed route. As the vehicle moves along the route, the street lights.
However, Den Ridder added: “We made one big mistake: If you are on a bike… and you only look into the dark, it is very frightening, because you’re a moving target.” To rectify this, Den Ridder said once a motorist or a person on a bike enters the road, the lights will stay illuminated at maximum for a longer period of time and dim gradually behind the vehicle.
“If you make this too short, you can see the bike, but the [person on the] bike cannot see anything in front” of them, added Den Ridder. He said this is nice “because it makes it a little bit easier for us as Dutch guys to get some business.”
Den Ridder said the cloud based light control system has been implemented along some of the Netherlands’ more remote roads between cities and is establishing a presence in Germany with the hope of extending the service in South Africa, despite the challenges of the country’s size and limited broadband coverage.
He added he hopes to have the luminaire devices manufactured in South Africa in the future. Den Ridder said he has had many discussions already with municipalities and private companies in the country regarding the implementation and sub contracting of the service.
“It amazed me, people were so… interested, immediately actually… We have a lot of relationships already built in this country.”
