Cooper Lighting Solutions: Improving Efficiency in Lighting for Municipalities & Utilities
March 26, 2025
Exploring the Benefits of Connected Network Lighting Control
Efficiency Benefits for Municipalities
Municipalities and the utilities that serve their residents are tasked with managing significant lighting-related costs for the installation, maintenance, and powering of streetlights and other infrastructure lighting. Thus, improving efficiency in infrastructure lighting and operation may result in considerable savings.
That’s where connected network lighting control comes in. The addition of network lighting controls allows for proactive management of lighting inventory and improved operation and maintenance of infrastructure lighting.
Users have full view of system-level performance – including fault detection – right from their remote device. A CMS (Central Management System) dashboard lets users check, troubleshoot, and diagnose the operational status of every light fixture in the system, and it automatically provides fault detection and flags recommended maintenance which in turn streamlines workflow and ultimately results in fewer trips to the light pole.
With intuitive remote dashboard control, users can zero in on a specific location anytime of the day or night, enabling them to monitor and schedule light level adjustments based on location and time requirements. This flexible control of individual fixtures, defined groups, even the entire installation.
Users can respond and adjust lighting levels more easily to address situations such as light trespass, emergencies, or the need for downtown lighting for a holiday parade – all of which can be accomplished from a remote device. The ability to remotely manage a system results in increased efficiency in response, which in turn delivers cost savings, improved public safety, and fewer citizen complaints.
Municipalities also greatly benefit from the analytics capabilities of network lighting control systems. Detailed energy consumption reports are generated and can be used to optimize energy and asset usage across the connected network.
Efficiency Benefits for Utilities
Connected network lighting control systems can determine power consumption within .5% accuracy to meet ANSI revenue grade metering requirements – providing utilities the option to improve their bottom line by billing customers based on actual energy consumed versus a fixed rate.
These systems also allow utilities to better serve their communities by automatically reducing energy consumption in response to preset parameters, improving peak demand response, maintaining grid stability, and decreasing the need for increased power generation.
