Ripley Lighting Controls

Long-range, Centralized, Wireless Control, Monitoring, and Metering for Street and Area Lighting

Exclusive Features

• Up to 150,000 points of programed lighting control per system
• Low installed cost per lamp
• Monitors individual lamp power consumption
• Uses standard web browser user interface
• Increases efficiency and savings over the operating life of street light assets
• Utilizes Ultra-Narrow Band (UNB) wireless platform

Overview

Aladdin is an intelligent wireless system for controlling and monitoring a wide range of street and area lighting installations.

Aladdin provides control, monitoring, and metering capabilities for applications ranging in size from a few area lights, to municipal installations consisting of up to 150,000 points of street light control; all on one system.

The Aladdin system consists of a network of up to 15 Base Stations; each capable of controlling as many as 10,000 individual lighting control modules (Telecells). Each Telecell is a stand-alone bidirectional twist-lock control module for controlling individual street lights or groups of lights that have the same control and monitoring requirements.

Each Telecell communicates with its Base Station using conventional cellular radio architecture.

The Aladdin system provides access to detailed operating information, enabling key functions and performance to be measured, maintained and controlled. In addition to controlling lamp operation, the system gathers power consumption and other electrical information for each Telecell. Therefore, the system can also be utilized as the basis for metering and billing for energy supplied to street lights.

The Aladdin system can be combined with existing street light asset management platforms providing further functionality in key areas of monitoring, performance and control.

Technology

The underlying radio technology utilized by Aladdin is Plextek’s Ultra-Narrow Band (UNB) wireless platform. UNB is proven technology that has been implemented by Plextek for over a decade in applications such as stolen vehicle recovery and automatic meter reading; with several million units in the field.

Aladdin’s key strengths are that it provides a flexible approach in bidirectional wireless telemetry where data throughput is modest, but where range and reliability requirements are important, especially in high volume applications where low cost is paramount.

Primary System Benefits

Programmable Switching

• precise control of on/off times
• energy savings through the fine tuning of burn hours to closely meet lighting control standards/requirements

Monitoring

• timely awareness of lamp failures
• reduction of night patrolling (possibly suspend patrol in dangerous areas)
• elimination of day burners
• extend range of information available e.g. to include primary power performance

Energy Consumption Metering

• understand and manage precise energy consumption
• remove uncertainties of un-metered or partially-metered supplies
• accurate balancing and settlement

Dimming

• combined with electronic ballasts, dims lamps to time of day and/or traffic flows

Repairs

• shorter time to repair
• improves maintenance productivity

Lamp Asset Management

• better understanding of electrical performance profiles for lamps and supply
• strengthens inventory

System Components

1. Telecells

   Twist-lock “Telecell” modules wirelessly communicate with base stations to provide lighting control, performance monitoring, and metering functions.
   
   There are three Telecell versions: NEMA, Mini-Cell, and Two-part Cell Equivalents; facilitating retrofit to all types of lighting units i.e. street lights, bollards, signs, etc.

2. Base Stations

   A base station consists of a radio and a controller unit. The radio is a small box which together with a rod antenna, is mounted at the top of a regular lighting pole or on a building. Along with the radio and antenna is a light meter for measuring ambient light at dawn and dusk (light level readings are used when lamps are programmed to switch according to measured light).
   
   The controller unit is enclosure mounted at the base of the pole or on the side of a building. It typically connects to the central system by a telephone line running ADSL. If wiring connection is difficult GSM/GPRS connectivity can also be used.

3. Central System

   The central system, situated at a central office, is a web server that communicates with all base stations to administer the system database and provide the user interface for overall system operation and management.

4. User Interface

   The system is operated with a web based user interface. Therefore no special client software is required and the system can be run securely using a standard web browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer; either locally or remotely over the internet or other wide area network.

System Characteristics

Bidirectional

allowing full functionality for both control and monitoring of street lighting.

Low Cost

using Plextek’s UNB technology means low unit cost is possible while retaining long-range coverage. The large quantity of Telecells served by each base station limits the number of base stations required; simplifying installations, and reducing deployment costs, especially in less densely populated areas.

Unlicensed Spectrum

the extended range and low radio transmitter power reduces the installed cost per unit and means that standard unlicensed radio spectrum can be used.

Range per Base Station

typically 1-2 miles urban and 3-6 miles rural (these are not ‘line of sight’ ranges but realistic numbers, which allow good quality coverage).

System Size

allows up to 10,000 lamp units per base station and 150,000 lamp units per system. This allows the lighting in large cities or whole counties to be managed by one system.

Lamp Control and Monitoring Control

Lamps can be grouped and programmed to switch or dim according to combinations of time, measured light levels (from base station light meter) or daily solar event times e.g. sunrise, sunset. Changing local circumstances can be accommodated using different programs (e.g. term and holiday time programs for lights near schools) and day of week variations for a given group. Programs and groups provide complete flexibility for operating lights to meet precise requirements.

Monitoring

Lamp failures, on and off times, mains supply and lamp electrical parameters (including power factor) can be reported regularly by setting monitoring schedules. Information can also be obtained on demand by polling units. If required, lamp failures can be reported as soon as they occur by setting up and using alarm profiles.