If smart lighting systems are applied, urban areas in Vietnam will ensure good lighting and can save 40-70% of electricity consumption.
Mr. Huynh Vinh Khanh, Chairman of Ben Tre City People’s Committee shared, before July 2020, Ben Tre still uses the old lighting system, which is halogen technology. This system has large power consumption, poor lamp life, and high maintenance costs. Before implementing the smart lighting project, Ben Tre had 7,467 lamp models distributed on 89 routes. At that time, the indicators of illuminance and luminance were not uniform, which did not guarantee the quality of lighting for road users, and at the same time caused a waste of electricity.
In order to reduce electricity consumption, the city must save 40% of the lights on the routes. According to the lighting standard of 35m, there must be a lamp post, but due to savings, every 70m, Ben Tre places a lamp post. However, every year Ben Tre still has to pay 6.2 billion dong for electricity along with 3.5 billion dong for management and maintenance fee.
From 2020, the city will implement a smart lighting project using IoT (Internet of Things) technology, replacing 6,800 sets of sodium and compact lights on 70 main roads and 13 routes in parks. This lighting system also installs devices for intelligent traffic management, smart advertising, real-time bus operation and environmental pollution warning.
“After operating the smart lighting system, the lamp posts are controlled remotely, from 11pm the lights will be reduced to save electricity. Accordingly, Ben Tre has reduced 50-60% of electricity consumption and saved about 3 billion per year, “said Mr. Huynh Vinh Khanh.
Using technology to save energy
A report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment shows that electricity for lighting in Vietnam accounts for about 35% of the total electricity supply, while in the world, this field only accounts for 15-17%. Energy saving solutions for lighting are therefore more urgent than ever. If technology is applied to lighting, Vietnam will significantly reduce electricity consumption, which can reach the world standard.
According to BKAV’s statistics, offices and public places that install an automatic on/off smart system will save up to 40% of monthly electricity bills. Based on the research and acceptance results in Tra Vinh city in 2017 by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, if this system is applied on a city-wide scale, the detailed costs can be reduced by at least the same amount. same as above. Recently, a research team from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology has tested a smart public lighting system in the National University Urban Area in Thu Duc, the inner street of the High-Tech Park in Ho Chi Minh City. The initial results obtained are very positive when saving 50-70% of electricity compared to high-pressure mercury lamps, depending on the control plan.
Up to this point, there are no detailed updated figures on the total amount spent on urban lighting in Vietnam. However, if we look at the numbers of Ho Chi Minh City, we will see that Vietnam can save trillions of dong from the application of technology. According to data from the HCMC Department of Transport in 2017, the electricity for public lighting in HCMC is up to 93 million kWh, equivalent to 180 billion VND. This is just the number of public lighting that the Department of Transport manages. If counting the entire public lighting system in Ho Chi Minh City, this number can be doubled.
It is clear that applying smart lighting technology solutions can save the city tens of billions of dong per year.
Cities are still slow
In Vietnam, the Decree on urban lighting management in 2009 as well as the Law on Urban Planning stipulate that urban lighting planning must be made into a separate project for centrally run cities. But at present, there are only 3 cities implementing it: Hai Phong, Da Nang and Can Tho.
Some cities such as Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh … are in the process of building and deploying smart cities and applying IoT technology to public lighting management, which is an indispensable part of infrastructure. urban. Many countries around the world require smart lighting when building urban infrastructure. Meanwhile, the deployment of smart lighting systems in Vietnam has just begun.
Mr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, Chairman of Lumi Company, said that we often see distances of tens of kilometers shining in the night even when there is no traffic. The old lighting system is causing too much waste because it cannot control the energy saving. If each light pole has a capacity of 150 – 200W, how much electricity will be wasted?
“Clearly smart lighting brings efficiency to cities, but urban managers want to do it or not. To solve the problem of smart lighting, there must be regulations for new urban projects. A smart city is not something big, but a small story like a smart light bulb,” said Mr. Nguyen Tuan Anh.
Thai Khang
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