Bellingham receives smart city streetlight conversion. (Photo Courtesy of Echelon)

Echelon Corp., a leading independent control networking company for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), announced today the installation of its Lumewave by Echelon lighting control system as part of a smart city streetlight LED retrofit at the City of Bellingham, Wash.

The smart city streetlight conversion — including 3,615 luminaires plus Echelon’s intelligent hybrid lighting control system — was orchestrated by McKinstry, a full service energy services company (ESCO) servicing the Western and Central United States. McKinstry, in turn, collaborated with Northwest Edison, a full service lighting and electrical contractor serving the greater Pacific Northwest, and Echelon, for its lighting control system products and expertise — to upgrade Bellingham’s streetlight infrastructure. Once the installation is fully operable, the new lighting system is projected to reduce annual utility costs by approximately $200,000, and streetlight operations by $44,000 as well as retain Bellingham’s existing decorative fixture aesthetics using wired/wireless connectivity. The expected completion date is early 2016.

The Bellingham City Council approved the retrofit on April 13, 2015. The City will use an energy efficiency loan from State LOCAL Program financing, in addition to a grant from the Department of Commerce and Puget Sound Energy rebates to fund the project, which will be paid back through the savings generated from installing LED streetlights.

“The streetlight conversion is projected to reduce approximately two million pounds of CO2 output annually,” said Clark Alan Williams, Superintendent of Traffic/Communications/Fleet & Facilities. “The City’s goal, based on our Climate Action Plan, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 70 percent by the year 2020. We are glad to have lighting experts McKinstry, Northwest Edition and Echelon guide us through the conversion and provide the City with a truly modern lighting solution that will provide us long term benefits.”

Intelligent lighting is the cornerstone of a truly adaptive outdoor lighting system that not only reduces cost, energy use and retains historic fixtures, but enables future expansion of technology to further improve the unique needs of residents including adaptive lighting, predictive maintenance and reduced glare.

“For municipalities, shifting to smart LEDs and away from manual street lighting management to a highly intelligent lighting network not only saves energy and money, but they gain the ability to manage and manipulate their lighting infrastructure like never before,” said Ron Sege, CEO and Chairman of Echelon Corp. “With a modern network, lighting quickly changes from a utility to a strategic asset that plays an important role in creating a safe environment for residents and a source of information for the city. Working with McKinstry and Northwest Edison has ensured that the city’s lighting needs are met with the installation.”

“Modern streetlighting infrastructure is the backbone of the networked cities of the future,” said Mark Jonson, Regional Director at McKinstry. “We’re excited to help the City of Bellingham cut waste, save money and control their future as they stay on the cutting edge of municipal innovation.”

“Northwest Edison is thrilled to be working with McKinstry and Echelon to install this industry leading streetlight and street-lighting control system for the City of Bellingham,” said Daniel Camilleri, President of Northwest Edison. “The effort invested into this project will ensure the residents have the best streetlight solution for the city.”

The Outdoor Intelligent Lighting Solution

Bellingham is installing a hybrid radio frequency and powerline solution that uses the existing lighting infrastructure, but replaces conventional light sources with high-efficacy LED fixtures and Lumewave by Echelon intelligent controls. Once the streetlights are installed, city engineers can manipulate, control and manage the lighting system from their offices to provide just the right amount of light necessary to enhance the safety of city streets.