San Jose Taps Echelon's Intelligent Controls for Energy Efficient LED Streetlight Demonstration

Echelon Corp. announced that it has won a tender for California's first smart streetlight project.

The City of San Jose reported it has selected Echelon's LonWorks technology for its second LED streetlight pilot. The project is part of the City's Green Vision, a 15-year plan to transform San Jose into a world center of clean technology to promote environmentally sustainable practices and to reduce energy use.

With this pilot, San Jose said it plans to convert 125 lights in the city's Hillview North neighborhood by June 2009. The new streetlights will use energy efficient LED lamps equipped with Echelon's power line networking technology and segment controllers. The city reported it is seeking funds from the Federal government's stimulus package to install additional lights, with plans to change all of its 65,000 streetlights to a new energy efficient system by 2022. The city expects to reduce energy use by almost 40 percent with the new system.

"San Jose is working to show the world that environmental responsibility makes financial sense. By transforming our streetlights, we help innovators create new industries and reduce the City's own operating and maintenance costs," said Chuck Reed, Mayor of the City of San Jose. "San Jose companies lead the world in clean tech innovation, in areas as diverse as solar and smart grid technology, alternative fuels, efficient lighting and energy monitoring systems innovation. We are delighted to partner with Echelon, a San Jose headquartered, world-class smart grid technology company."

Because the system is based on a single, networked infrastructure, future enhancements could include message and traffic intelligence programs to move traffic more efficiently. The system could 'strobe' the lamps on and off and such a capability could be tied to emergency services to help response teams easily locate the site of an incident, the groups noted in a release.

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