OREANDA-NEWS. August 20, 2012. ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will begin operating Japan’s first smart street lighting system (hereinafter “this system”) in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture. Using cutting-edge technology and deploying a smart streetlight system, ITOCHU aims to reduce power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions as well as operate, maintain, and control street lighting more efficiently.

The system, which will begin operating on August 6 this year in Tsukuba City, is commissioned under the Ministry of the Environment’s "2011 Challenge 25 Regional Development Project." Tsukuba City will incorporate a total of 93 streetlights installed in the city’s Chuo Park and the Tsukuho district to verify the system’s impact on reducing power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The system consists of a power line communications (hereinafter “PLC”) compatible communications apparatus that has PLC capability installed on each streetlight, which enables transmit and receive data through power line. Controlling and monitoring of lighting can be performed using the system on the ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation’s cloud platform via the Internet.

The following 93 streetlights will be part of the system in Tsukuba City.

Chuo Park

ITOCHU changed 21 existing mercury vapor streetlights into those using LED lighting made by Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd. that can continuously dim from 45% to 100%. It also installed these streetlights with PLC compatible communications apparatus enabled for this system.

Tsukuho district

ITOCHU equipped 36 existing high-pressure sodium-vapor streetlights with a ballast that can dim to two levels, namely 50% and 100%. It also installed these streetlights with PLC compatible communications apparatus enabled for this system. In addition, ITOCHU changed 36 other existing high-pressure sodium-vapor lights into Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd.’s LED lighting that can continuously dim from 25% to 100%. It also installed these streetlights with PLC compatible communications apparatus enabled for this system.

Adopting a smart street lighting system not only makes it possible to remotely control a single light to turn on and off and dim, but also enables automatic lighting control based on a schedule established from a remote location. In addition, the system realizes operational efficiency in maintaining and managing streetlights since it allows an accurate understanding of areas including power consumption, electric current levels, voltage measurements, unlit streetlights and accumulated lighting hours. In terms of devising an operational schedule for the areas selected for the system, ITOCHU will use a pattern most suited for each area by testing out features such as light intensity and the installation environment that surrounds the streetlights.

Two companies, Panasonic Corporation and Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation, will also join the project this fall, with the actual number of streetlights selected for the project expected to total 210.

ITOCHU will move forward and offer this solution to local governments nationwide by utilizing the results of the actual reduction in power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions achieved in this project.