LonMark International Releases New Smart Lighting Controller Profile

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New profile requires less memory, lowering the cost of smart lighting products
 
SAN JOSE, CALIF., Sept. 10, 2013- LonMark, a non-profit association for the certification, education and promotion of interoperability standards for control networking, today announced the release of the new LonMark Smart Lighting Controller (SLC) profile. The new profile uses less memory than the current Outdoor Lighting Controller (OLC) profile, which lowers the cost of outdoor lighting products, supports multiple media types, lowers bandwidth utilization, and provides additional system functionality.
 
The LonMark SLC and OLC profiles are based on the ISO/IEC 14908 standards for control networking, with more than 400,000 light points under control in 15 countries. The seamless routing between networks eliminates the cost and complexity of gateways and can be used for demand response or peak shaving.
 
“Networked street lighting is gaining momentum worldwide by cities, municipalities and utilities to lower maintenance and energy costs,” said Barry Haaser, executive director, LonMark International.  “However, most networked lighting solutions are proprietary and supported by a single supplier. Solutions based on the LonMark interoperability standard are interoperable, meaning that products can be sourced from multiple suppliers. One added benefit of networked streetlights is the ability to utilize this energy resource for demand response or peak shaving.”
 
Open systems support competitive bidding on system upgrades, service, and expansion once an open, interoperable street lighting system is installed, reducing sole-sourced vendor lock-in. Many municipalities that have upgraded their streetlights to LEDs are reporting energy cost savings of up to 50 percent. Networked lighting control can reduce costs by an additional 20 to 30 percent.
 
Echelon Corporation, the leading open standard energy control networking company that connects more than 35 million homes, 300,000 buildings and 100 million devices to the smart grid, is submitting the first product based on the new SLC profile to LonMark International for certification.
 
“Over 500 cities have lighting systems based on Echelon’s smart street lighting solution and the technology used in the SLC,” said Varun Nagaraj, senior vice president and general manager, Internet of Things, Echelon Corp.  “The number of streetlights in a city make it expensive and difficult to maintain on regular basis. Our new CPD 3000 Outdoor Lighting Controller, provides two-way communications between lamps and segment controllers,  offering significant energy and maintenance savings that our customers can pass on to theirs.”
 
Networked streetlights enable managers to improve customer service by:
- Obtaining real time information on every lamp’s operational status and energy consumption
- Quickly identifying streetlight failures and their precise location
- Improving maintenance response times
- Reducing customer complaints
- Verifying actual streetlight performance against warranty
- Adapting lighting levels in real time in response to atypical conditions such as extreme weather, a sporting event, or a major traffic accident
 
LonMark International is hosting a webinar referencing this topic on Oct. 1, 2013; 8AM PDT:  Open Streetlight Control Systems Register Today.
 
About LONMARK International
LonMark International is a non-profit corporation supporting the testing and certification of products, people and companies supporting the ISO/IEC 14908 body of standards. Its nearly 350 members manufacture, distribute, develop, install or use systems based on these standards. LonMark International provides peer-review based certification guidelines and testing for products, people and companies. There are over 500 interoperable products certified and listed on the LonMark website and over 680 people have been certified as LonMark Certified Professionals. For more information about LonMark International, please visit www.lonmark.org.