The 10th Hong Kong International Spring Lighting Fair ended on the 9th. During the exhibition, the Highways Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government revealed that 400 smart street lights will be introduced next year.
The 4-day Lighting Fair was hosted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. More than 1,350 exhibitors from 13 countries and regions gathered at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center to showcase various lighting products. The organizer also arranged a number of conferences and forums for the industry.
Ye Guoliang, the chief engineer of the Street Lighting Department of the Highways Department of the SAR government, said at the “Asian Lighting Conference” held during the exhibition that the SAR government will start in 2019 and spend three years introducing a multi-functional smart street lighting system. Zhong, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, as well as Kowloon Tsim Sha Tsui, Kwun Tong, and Kai Tak installed about 400 smart street lights. This will be an important step in Hong Kong’s development into a smart city.
Ye Guoliang said that smart street lights can collect real-time city information, such as real-time road conditions, measurement data, air pollution index, etc. He believes that a smart city is not a purely technological concept, but should be more convenient for citizens’ lives, which requires the use of Internet of Things technology. At present, there are 220,000 street lights in Hong Kong, which can be used to cooperate with the development of the Internet of Things.
According to reports, the design of smart street lights is not much different from ordinary street lights currently used in Hong Kong, but smart street lights use LED bulbs, with an antenna on the top to connect to the Internet and different sensors inside. Engineers can remotely switch or dim smart streetlights, and monitor in real-time whether streetlights need repairs or bulb replacements. Ye Guoliang said that the use and replacement of LED bulbs can reduce power consumption by 30%, and the optimization of light and shade adjustment methods is expected to further save power consumption by 20%.