Portugal’s E-REDES launches smart grid street lighting project

Portuguese distribution system operator E-REDES has announced an automation project to make it possible to vary the intensity of street lighting and implement remote monitoring.

E-REDES, in partnership with the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra, is launching the Luxifer project using the FlexIP system, the distribution operator’s public lighting remote management system.

The Luxifer project, led by a team of two Master’s students in Electrical Engineering, João Cardoso and João Ferreira, under the guidance of professors Cristian Agreira and José Pedro Amaro, aims to understand the impact on the electrical network of the synchronism in the fast actions of IP LED luminaire controllers.

According to E-REDES in a release, their FlexIP system has made it possible to test a new remote communications protocol to create a smart grid and the impact of these solutions on the electricity network.

E-REDES states that in Coimbra, at Quinta de S. Jerónimo, it was possible to see how this communication protocol, LoRaWAN, coexists with the FlexIP system network on site. This test, which involved 20 LED luminaires with point-to-point controllers, made it possible to control each one individually.

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The aim was to validate the operation of the Luxifer project’s controllers via the FlexIP System platform in a real environment, following joint tests with an E-REDES team at ISEC in 2023, which demonstrated their correct performance. To carry out the first tests, two luminaires with Luxifer project controllers were installed on the ISEC campus and have been operating since then.

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The LED technology used in public lighting in cities allows for radically less intrusive and more sustainable operation.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), LED lighting is already highly cost-effective compared to conventional light sources, especially incandescent, halogen and fluorescent lamps.

Direct, drop-in replacement LED products have been developed by the industry so that fixtures do not need to be changed. These drop-in LED retrofit solutions allow existing fixtures to remain in place while the end user can benefit from substantially lower running costs.

Compared to incandescent, LED lamps offer 80-90% energy savings. Compared to fluorescent, they achieve 50-60% savings.