Challenge & Context

One aspect of innovating cities is taking actions to reduce energy consumption, pollution and thus free up economic resources to improve public and private sector innovative services.

These are just a few of the goals of the projects developed by Municipia — the Italian company of Engineering Group working on Augmented Cities — which are now emphasizing energy efficiency policies.

This FIWARE impact story aims to share the experience of the RUACH Consortium, an Italian Public Private Partnership comprised of 40 municipalities in Sicily, including Francofonte (Siracusa), San Teodoro (Messina), Acquaviva Platani (Caltanissetta), Comiso (Ragusa), Mojo Alcantara (Messina), and several private companies.

The technical specification called for the installation of a set of physical components and advanced software applications to receive, monitor, and operate remotely on data assets distributed throughout the cities, as well as predict what might happen if certain conditions were met.

The scope of these projects includes improving the efficiency of street lighting, with the goal of lowering costs and reducing energy waste.

The concept has been continuously evolving from street lighting to smart lighting to smart cities. Driven by the need for sustainability and control, cities are embracing such smart solutions. The impact story identifies some of these drivers and shows how street lighting can be an incredible infrastructure option for smart city development.

Street lighting accounts for a significant portion of total energy consumption, and in many cases, its level seems excessive. Thanks to digital technology, lighting levels can be easily lowered to achieve energy savings. For example, unnecessary lighting levels can be reduced during low traffic volumes. On the other hand, in specific situations, such as for traffic safety reasons, light levels can and should be increased, even during low traffic volumes.

Data collected in Italy shows that the annual consumption of electricity for public lighting was approximately 6,000 GWh, with a per capita consumption of 100 kWh, which is double the European average of 51 kWh.

In Italy, the total cost for public lighting in was 1.7 billion euros, which amounts to about 28.7 euros per capita. France had a similar expenditure of 20.3 euros per capita, while Germany was the most cost-effective with a per capita expenditure of 5.8 euros.

Streetlights not only have environmental effects but also social benefits. They help people feel safe and can reduce crime rates in the area.

Figure 1 . Real time monitoring of power meters

Figure 2 . Details of parameters measured by a Algodue power Meter

Figure 3 . Geo-localization of Smart streetlights concentrators and alarms status

Figure 4 . Sending commands to Smart Streetlights

Figure 5 . Data Mashup

Figure 6 . Functional architecture of the Smart Lighting solution

Figure 7 . Solution architecture in a scalable environment

The architecture used in this solution is an event-driven microservice architecture that receives from two levels: the control plane and the data plane.

The control plane enables the self-provisioning on the cloud of edge terminations such as circuits and smart lamps. The edge is responsible for notifying the cloud about events like the connection of a new device to the network through MQTT Messages. On the Cloud-side, the Data Mashup Editor receives these events and updates the digital representation of the physical topology.

After a device is registered, it can send measures directly to the Cloud using the MQTT protocol (HTTP is also supported). The Cloud-side component responsible for receiving these measures is called the “Device Manager” and it triggers the data processing rules. These rules oversee post-processing on the data and their persistence in a Time series DB.

All devices and their measures can be aggregated into higher level logical entities called assets, which are managed by the Asset Manager. This component allows for the definition of entities other than devices and the creation of hierarchies among them.

Once the data is persisted, it can be displayed on self-service dashboards using the Dashboard Manager. In the case of Street Lighting, we created dashboards for multiple public administrations that can be consumed by end-users according to standard ACL policies.

Benefits & Impact

Street lighting is an essential infrastructure for any city and can be considered the backbone of smart cities worldwide due to its omnipresence, high density, and connection to the power grid. Moreover, cities are upgrading their street lighting systems to LED lamps, providing even more power and energy efficiency.

To create a smart city, sensors must be installed throughout the city on a physical infrastructure that typically inlcudes buildings, roads, power supply lines, and water supply systems. However, this infrastructure requires significant investment, and can be complex.

In contrast, mounting sensors on street light poles is a less complex and disruptive option that can be integrated throughout the city. Additionally, individual lighting control provides uninterrupted power at the pole level, which is not possible with legacy street lighting that powers off during the day.

The project led by Municipia aims to reduce CO2 emissions and electricity costs by enabling cities to use lighting only where and when necessary. The system is integrated with sensors and video cameras that detect, monitor, and manage information from the urban ecosystem, improving local surveillance for the benefit of public safety.

The savings from reduced energy consumption, can be redirected towards additional services, and innovative services can be provided for interaction with the local area using software technologies.

The project has been implemented in the municipalities of Comiso and Francofonte. Comiso has approximately 7,132 light points, 96 concentrators, and 50 Algodue meters, while Francofonte has approximately 550 light points, 8 concentrators, and 8 Algodue meters.

Added value through FIWARE

The solution is based entirely on open standards, open APIs, and Smart Data Models, following FIWARE Foundation and OASC principles. It is “Powered by FIWARE”, utilizing FIWARE Generic Enablers and NGSI APIs, which enable the integration of different components and systems, ensuring that the platform is interoperable, portable, and easily implemented on a global scale.

The Digital Enabler® is an ecosystem platform that can be applied in a variety of domains and situations, making it possible to relate to other software and applications while being replicated for different purposes quickly and cost effectively.

At the centre of the system is the Context Broker, a FIWARE Generic Enabler that integrates data from multiple systems, creating a holistic view of contextualised information.

The Context Broker uses FIWARE NGSI v2 specifications to provide real-time updates and access to information that contextualises the data being displayed, such as updates, queries, and notifications. This enables organisations to monitor their metrics in real-time through live updates. It also allows context information to be shared with third parties to improve processes and innovation across the data value chain.