In early november, first complete street in Estonia covered with smart controlled LED luminaires was switched on. The innovative 1.3-km-long smart lighting control solution enables energy savings up to 65-85 percent, and lowers maintenance costs about 50 percent.

Elektroskandia Baltics board member Timo Raimla said the electricity price hike was a painful blow to the government purse. This put municipalities and cities to seek advanced solutions for lowest possible costs for street lighting. "Today Elektroskandia has got strong team and good partners who are able to offer complete solutions for energy saving. A good example is recently completed project in Linnamäe with it's 43 LED luminaires equipped with smart management system provided by Gridens Technologies OÜ," commented Raimla.

Elektroskandia Baltics energy-efficient solutions sales manager Ivar Kurg said that pilot project on Linnamäe is testing area for big procurement in Estonia for 7 mid-sized cities smart street lighting. "This smart system allows you to adjust the brightness of the lighting in the range of 10-100 percent according to the customer's choice. Consequently, good energy efficiency and need-based lighting is achieved. For example, at night Linnamäe luminaires work only on 20 percent capacity. Street is also divided into different lighting groups according to the traffic load. Light traffic luminaires are equipped with motion detectors for extra energy efficiency - so lights are up on the road section where it is needed."

According to Kurg what makes this solution valuable is that the government is able to promptly detect faults and the daily energy consumption of the whole system, also switch on and off lights and check the uminaires operating temperature. "This solution for lighting control and equipment is produced by the Estonian company, so we can be very flexible to change and improve the system according to the customer's wishes," he added.

In 2015 Spring European countries cease any production of mercury lamps, which in turn leads to an increasing need for a transition from old to LED lighting. For example, LED street lighting compared to sodium and mercury vapor lamps lower energy costs  up to 2-5 times in total. LED lighting street lamps light output is particularly effective because the light flow is directional. By the end of 2015, seven Estonian cities Jõhvi, Keila, Kuressaare, Paide, Valga, Võru and Haapsalu will recieve the same solution as on Linnamäe. Four cities from get light fixtures and smart street lighting system from Elektroskandia Baltics and Gridens Technologies Ltd. This procurement is carried out by  Environmental Investment Centre and is financed by the Austrian bought CO2 allowance units.

This project is currently unique in the world.

Truong Duy