Barcelona City Council and Royal Philips have signed a collaboration agreement on the subject of Smart Cities. The agreement will seek to make the city more energy efficient through connected LED street lighting. Working with the City Council, Philips aims to make Barcelona a trailblazer in the field of Smart Cities for the economic, environmental and social benefit of citizens. Philips will also provide defibrillators to the city of Barcelona as part of this collaboration.

The Mayor of Barcelona, the Hon. Mr. Xavier Trias and the Chief Market Leader of Royal Philips, Mr. Ronald de Jong, have confirmed their commitment to collaboration, which aims to strengthen the position of Barcelona as the European Capital of Innovation in the fields of health, lighting and energy efficiency.

Spanish city Barcelona's night view. (LEDinside/Philips)

The Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, has said that "the alliance between Barcelona and large businesses such as Philips is focused on improving the running of public services under Smart City criteria. Barcelona's aim to be a role model in the field of Smart Cities is also an opportunity to develop a new model for economic growth based on technology, urban innovation and advanced services. We work with other cities, companies, research centers and institutions around the world, including the European Commission, to develop new projects that have a clear impact on improving the wellbeing, health and quality of life of people."

Meanwhile, Ronald de Jong said, "Collaboration with the city of Barcelona in the development of innovations designed for its citizens is a step toward building intelligent and livable cities. Increasingly, progress in this field is being led by public-private partnership models.”

One of the main areas of activity is focused on the street, functional and monumental lighting of the city, where the incorporation of management systems and connected LED lighting technology can provide significant energy savings, while improving the quality and comfort of lighting for citizens and strengthen the brand image of Barcelona. In parallel, the two organizations are working together on projects in the area of Smart Cities under the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission.

Philips will be lighting up the beautiful Spanish city Barcelona with intelligent LED lights soon. (LEDinside/Philips)

Philips and the City Council have developed joint projects of public-private collaboration to improve the efficiency of public-lighting installations and increase the level of security of the streets through quality lighting. Through the combination of LED lighting and control systems, including light on demand systems such as Philips LumiMotion and the Philips CityTouch street lighting remote management system, energy savings of more than 60% have been achieved. That’s the reason why Philips CityTouch will be the connected lighting management platform in Passeig de Gràcia, once the refurbishment of 300 street lights is completed.

Philips is also developing an innovative project in  Paral.lel, which combines the above mentioned Philips CityTouch system with functional lighting, architectural lighting and control applications.

Also, Philips and the city of Barcelona will collaborate on an ambitious project to make the city the "first cardio-protected European capital." This initiative focuses on the provision of defibrillators in known busy public areas and has appropriate protocols to cater for cases of sudden cardiac arrest.