1.5 million euros in state funding and over 85% energy cost savings - street lighting in Dietzenbach is a flagship project

With particularly energy-efficient street lighting and over 80 sensors, not only are the streetlights now controlled throughout Dietzenbach, but data on traffic, car parks, waste and the environment is also collected and immediately analysed. Hesse has subsidised the project with 1.5 million euros.

Kaweh Mansoori, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport, Housing and Rural Areas, took the opportunity to install the last digital sensor himself on an LED light pole at Hessentagspark, directly in front of the town hall.

"The project here in Dietzenbach shows how energy efficiency and digitalisation can be implemented in municipalities and what improvements this can bring for municipal services. The sensors help to control the lighting as required. This not only saves energy, but also reduces light pollution in the city," said the Minister. "Alongside Fulda, Dietzenbach is one of two municipalities to receive this grant for smart and energy-efficient infrastructure. The experience gained from the two closely monitored pilot projects can be utilised in other municipalities. In this way, we are supporting digital change and greater energy efficiency in cities and municipalities."

Sensors optimise municipal tasks

Mayor Dr Dieter Lang emphasised: "We want to use the information for our municipal tasks with the aim of working even more efficiently and in a more citizen-friendly way." For example, environmental sensors help to estimate when and where the winter road clearance service needs to be deployed, while temperature data and moisture sensors in the soil are used by the Parks Department to plan watering. Four ultrasonic sensors in rubbish containers for glass and paper report fill levels. These are only emptied when they are actually full to the brim. "This saves lorry journeys, reduces operating times and noise for residents," says Lang happily.

Reducing traffic congestion

Twelve thermal imaging cameras record the traffic in the district town. On the one hand, their data is used to control the street lighting depending on the current volume of traffic. On the other hand, this data is fed into AI models that output optimised switching recommendations for traffic light control to the Hessen Mobil traffic computer. The aim is to divert traffic out of the city more quickly at peak times in future. This will benefit commuters, residents and the environment.

Safer and more economical thanks to LED lighting technology

The necessary technology has been integrated into existing lighting columns as far as possible, making smart and efficient use of the existing infrastructure. What's more, as part of the pilot project, 440 old luminaires were replaced with the latest LED lighting technology, including additional temperature and noise level sensors - the second pillar of the pilot project. "LEDs only consume a fraction of the energy previously used for street lighting. We expect energy cost savings of up to 85 per cent per year," says Guido Schick, Commercial Director of the municipal utilities and Managing Director of Stadtwerke Dietzenbach GmbH. It is not only the high energy efficiency of LED lights that plays a role here, but also the control system: each individual light was planned and networked with pinpoint accuracy. The lights only light up when a vehicle approaches. Schick adds: "Less light pollution and radiation onto front gardens, an increase in quality thanks to better illumination of critical traffic points and less maintenance are the major advantages of smart LED street lighting for us."

Many tasks, one dashboard

 "All the information collected by the sensors flows together on an open urban data platform, where it is processed and displayed in real time on a dashboard designed for Dietzenbach. This makes it easier to think about and coordinate urban tasks together," emphasises Matthias Weis, Managing Director of [ui!] Urban Lighting Innovations GmbH, which helped supervise and implement the project in Dietzenbach.

Background: partners and history

As general contractor, [ui!] Urban Lighting Innovations installed high-quality lighting technology with innovative lighting control systems and paired it with professional traffic technology that enables optimised traffic control with the support of artificial intelligence. With a selection of different, future-proof networked IoT sensors, various tasks, such as green space irrigation and waste disposal, are also supported.

The technologies required for this are to be highly integrated into the existing mast infrastructure of the city of Dietzenbach as part of the project. As part of the model project, the lighting masts will not only serve as carriers for ultra-modern and networked luminaires, but will also house LoRaWAN gateways and the technologies required for traffic detection. The luminaires also contribute to expanding the municipal situation picture with data on noise and ambient temperatures.

The diverse data is collected on an open data platform, harmonised and analysed in real time and fed for direct further use. The traffic data is used on the one hand to control the light depending on the traffic and on the other hand to generate switching recommendations for the traffic light systems.

In 2018/2019, the city digitally recorded all street lighting on its own with the aim of switching to LED lighting in the long term. In 2021, the consultancy HessenEnergie Gesellschaft für rationelle Energienutzung mbH and LEA LandesEnergieAgentur Hessen GmbH (LEA Hessen) were commissioned by the Hessian Ministry of Economics to look for suitable municipalities to test smart LED street lighting via a call for funding as part of the Hessian municipal energy guidelines. In 2022, the municipal council approved the project, and in the same year Dietzenbach received a funding commitment of €2.1 million from the state of Hesse. In 2023, HessenEnergie planned and accompanied the tendering process, and in 2024 the sensors were installed, the software systems were set up and the conversion to LED street lighting took place. Due to good planning and lower project costs, Dietzenbach will not utilise the funding commitment and will only require 1.5 million euros in funding.

Outside of the pilot projects, the state of Hesse provides funding for LED street lighting in addition to federal funding. Local authorities interested in the Hessian funding programme can contact the Hesse State Energy Agency.

Source: PM City of Dietzenbach from 18.12.2024