Smart lighting rolls out at scale

A program bundling smart street lighting systems, low-cost financing, and technical advice aims to replace a half-million street lights across New York State with low-draw LED lamps by 2025. The effort is a partnership between New York State's power authority and Signify, formerly Philips Lighting.

But beyond saving energy, the program is seen as a transformative opportunity to extend local governments' sensing and service capabilities deep into neighborhoods. "Among other things, the streetlights can accommodate tilt, vibration and noise sensors, which can share data with emergency responders through the Interact City platform, while specific “smart poles” called BrightSites can hold cellular equipment and Wi-Fi transmitters," reports GovTech.

This points towards a maturing of the smart streetlight rollout across wide geographies with effective use cases, proven technology, and workable long-term financial models—and a clear set of future capabilities to be further leveraged.