Echelon says several major highways and bridges in the Yangtze River Delta will use the company's technology to reduce energy consumption.
The lighting control system will be installed and managed by Echelon's Authorized Network Integrator Nanjing Lianhong Automation Company.
"China's high growth transportation infrastructure sector has put an urgent stamp on finding the most innovative solutions for managing the country's power quality, security and energy management processes," said Baocai Wu, Nanjing Lianhong's CEO. "Echelon's ultra-reliable LonWorks technology and products provide the ideal infrastructure required for long-term projects like street and bridge lighting. The open technology ensures that products from multiple manufacturers can be added to the system, now or in the future. The ability to add new functionality, modify energy savings applications, and conduct remote management were the key attributes that led to the selection of the LonWorks platform as the basis of the overall solution."
Project integrator Nanjing Lianhong needed to create an open, flexible and reliable lighting control system to reduce energy consumption and increase security. Using Echelon's i.LON Internet servers and LonWorks open standards networking protocol over a single fiber optic network, Nanjing Lianhong is able to offer a system that can remotely control and monitor substations, dehumidify equipment, and serve as the public highway and bridge lighting system.
One of the world's first open IP-based highway and bridge implementations, more than 1,500 of China's highway and bridge lights will be embedded with Echelon's LonWorks networking protocol enabled FT smart transceivers. Echelon's i.LON Internet server extends the local area networks over the Internet and IP networks allowing all of the sites to be remotely monitored using PCs and requiring virtually no need for manpower. The system allows for improved energy management and conservation, increased security, and more efficient maintenance and operations. Furthermore the networked lighting system will be leveraged to beautify highways and bridges, turning the latter into more notable landmarks.
