Smart city specialist helps build UK’s largest LoRaWAN® ecosystem for Aberdeen’s Digital Transformation project
SOWERBY BRIDGE, UK: Lucy Zodion Ltd, LoRa Alliance member and specialist in the development of smart city solutions, is working with Aberdeen City Council to make over 17,000 streetlights throughout the city more intelligent and efficient. The organisation’s LoRaWAN® enabled smart city ecosystem Ki. is being deployed to give the city complete control over its street lighting system, with enhanced efficiencies and cost-savings key benefits.
The landmark project is the largest of its kind in the UK and is part of a city-wide upgrade programme that will convert current street lighting infrastructure into connected points across the city, with LED lanterns installed alongside LoRaWAN® enabled Ki. Nodes. This upgrade means the Council will be able to control and monitor their street lighting schemes remotely, via the Ki. City Platform (a smart city interface), aiding quicker fault and maintenance repairs, as well as more intuitive streetlight dimming.
The Ki. ecosystem – optimised by openness
The Ki. ecosystem is optimised by openness; it connects streetlights and communicates the data they generate bi-directionally via a LoRaWAN® compliant wireless network. The Ki. City Platform then translates this data to provide insights at a glance, which enables Aberdeen to ensure metrics, such as energy use, are in line with their goals and objectives. This helps to improve municipal efficiencies and enhance the lives of citizens by offering instant insights into the performance of urban assets.
“We are at the forefront of transforming the digital infrastructure in Aberdeen which will bring benefits not only to the council through savings, but also to residents by being smarter about getting our lights repaired,”
said John Wheeler, councillor, Aberdeen City Council.
Being interoperable, Ki. also gives Aberdeen the opportunity to seamlessly deploy a number of other smart city solutions across the city, both now and in the future, in line with their digital transformation strategy. This is made possible by the LoRaWAN® enabled ecosystem that provides a tertiary layer of connectivity throughout the intelligent city-wide network.
Keeping the city connected
Lucy Zodion is a member of the LoRaAlliance, which encourages collaboration to drive the success of the LoRaWAN® protocol, which is a leading open global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity.
Creating a bi-directional data flow requires a reliable network that will support the masses of data running through the city each and every day. Lucy Zodion has worked closely with a local network provider to ensure Aberdeen City Council can continue using the Ki. City Platform at all times, so smart city assets constantly communicate and transmit valuable data.
Richard Perry, Lucy Zodion’s Smart Cities Business Development Manager, comments:
“Ki. has been developed to give city leaders better control over their urban infrastructure. We have worked with local network providers to ensure Aberdeen City Council can consistently and effectively monitor & control their street lighting, via a strong communications network that is enhanced by LoRaWAN®.
Richard adds:
The Ki. City Platform will be a valuable tool for the Council, not only for streetlight management but for gaining a deeper and more contextual understanding into their smart city. As the ecosystem is LoRaWAN® compliant, these insights gain more traction as additional smart devices are deployed, thanks to the seamless integration aided by the standard.”
The Aberdeen intelligent street lighting initiative is one of the first of its kind in Scotland, which is set to help the Council save 60% of its energy, with cost savings of approximately £1.1m per year once the streetlights have been upgraded with LED lanterns and Ki. Nodes.
Lucy Zodion is confident that Ki. will help Aberdeen make more informed decisions about how to build their smart city, thanks to the insights the ecosystem can generate. For more information about Ki. please visit www.Ki.community
ENDS
More information about Ki.:Ki. (Pronounced ‘key’) unlocks opportunities for urban spaces, helping them to become more pro-active in their journey towards smarter and more responsive city development. From the fundamental function of street lighting control, to the management of additional sensor networks, Ki. holds the answer to help energise future communities.
Communicating via an open, wireless ecosystem of enabling hardware and IoT software, enhanced by LoRaWAN™, Ki. helps to improve municipal efficiencies and enhance the lives of citizens by offering instant insights into the performance of urban assets.
Further information about Lucy Zodion: Lucy Zodion Ltd is a company within the Lucy Group, a privately owned organisation of Lucy Group Ltd. Other companies in the Group include Lucy Electric, Lucy Controls (of which Lucy Zodion and Lawson Fuses sit within) and Lucy Real Estate (encompassing Lucy Properties and Lucy Developments).
