Powerline Communications for
Street Lighting Automation
Posted May 09th 2013
Street lighting in its many forms—
roadway lighting, tunnel lighting, car
park lighting, and urban lighting— is
a major consumer of electricity. All
outdoor lighting is, in fact, estimated
to comprise 19% of worldwide
electricity usage today. For
municipalities and businesses with
large facilities, street lighting is a
significant portion of operational
expenses. Street lighting is also a
vital part of public safety. Ensuring
that street lights are reliably on and
at the optimal illumination level for
pedestrian and vehicle traffic is
critical to public safety and the
operators' liability. As a result, any
improvements to energy usage,
operational reliability, and
maintenance costs provide significant
payback for the organizations
responsible for that street lighting.
There are, of course, obvious added
benefits to the environment as
energy usage is lowered. Powerline
communication (PLC) is the natural
choice for automating street lighting
networks. PLC enables companies
and municipalities to reduce
operational costs and improve safety.
G3-PLC is a new OFDM-based PLC
system designed for grid automation
that dramatically extends the range,
data rate, and performance of
powerline communications. This
article discusses the benefits of a G3-
PLC-based automation system and
presents a real-world example of a
system for reducing energy usage
and lowering maintenance costs in
tunnels. The basic system design is
explained and key performance
parameters discussed. A transceiver
optimized for PLC automation is
presented.
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