Light and IoT for the Eternal City

The aim of the project by Techno was to create an interconnection system capable of connecting the lighting fixtures used for street lighting in Rome, the Riberberi intelligent and eco-sustainable light control systems, and the power cable.

A large part of European energy consumption depends on urban areas and generates non-negligible greenhouse gas emissions.

Street lighting plays a key role in urban safety and quality of life. The more than 90 million street lamps in Europe account for more than 50% of public energy consumption and 60% of related costs.

The supporters who have collaborated on the front lines are:

• Agire (Agency for the Intelligent Management of Energy Resources), aims to develop an innovative way to help promote the use of renewable sources and energy saving with particular attention to Local Authorities, Small and Medium Enterprises, Agricultural Companies and Family Users.

• Reverberi Enetec, a company specialized in lighting technology based in Castelnovo Monti, sells its solutions mainly to ESCOs (Energy Service Companies);

For this project, Reverberi provided all the technology for the regulation and management of lighting, together with the wireless network for collecting environmental data. As a result, in the Eur district, one hundred lampposts have become intelligent.

• Municipality of Rome: collects data on pollution, noise, vehicle traffic, to then create real maps useful for improving the quality of life in the city.

• Techno: founded in 1986, is a company specialized in the design and production of electrical connections for harsh environments with high demands in terms of protection from atmospheric factors.

For the Life-Diademe project, Techno supplied the connectors for the city's lighting poles.

The solution for an eco-sustainable city

Life-Diademe is a project funded by the European Union for the environment. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of environmental policy and legislation through the co-financing of pilot or demonstration projects with European added value. In particular, the one on Rome in the EUR area has foreseen four phases:

• Preparatory Actions

At this stage all parameters, goals, rules and components must be defined.

• Monitoring the impact of project actions

Energy consumption, luminance and safety were monitored throughout the project.

An accurate “Life Cycle Assessment” was conducted in order to evaluate the environmental impact of the project and a “Life Cycle Cost Analysis” to evaluate the related environmental savings obtained by public administrations.

• Communication and dissemination of results

The partners are committed to disseminate the project activities, socio-economic and environmental impacts, solutions at national, EU and international level.

• Project management and monitoring of project progress

This last phase consists in the management and monitoring of ongoing activities, in the planning of administrative, contingency, technical and quality activities, monitoring and reporting.

Technical requirements and Techno solution

The main power cable, coming from the backbone and running inside the lighting pole, is provided by a terminal connector. On the other side is the connection to the lighting fixture.

For the LIFE-DIADEME scope, there was a need to communicate with the power system inside the luminaires.

One way to provide dimmable lighting level to the main power supply of the luminaire is to intercept the power and information from the control center and provide new levels, via PLC, on the cable for the main power supply of the luminaire.

The connection system

The connection system is provided with a cable with the following electrical requirements:

• 4 wires of 2.5mm2

• 4 strands of assorted colors or 4 numbered strands.

• No yellow/green wires are allowed inside the cable (Earth/Ground Protection).

• 0.6/1kV

• Maximum external cable diameter 12.5 mm

The total length measured outside the connection system must be 400 ± 10 mm

The connection system incorporates a fixing system to secure the cable and provides a hole to hook a cable from the lighting fixture.

The connection system must provide a capacity to withstand a traction of 15 kg between the plug and the socket while the plug and socket must withstand a torque of 10Nm.

Experimentation with technologies and materials has led to incredible results:

• Road traffic monitoring

• Luminance detection

• Detection of weather conditions and pollutants

• Study of suitable solutions to apply the identified technologies to existing lamps