UK firm Telensa is to provide smart outdoor lighting, bringing remote control and energy savings, at the Port of Tyne, in the northeast of England.
The Port of Tyne, one of the UK’s major deep-sea ports, is a trading centre for a diverse range of cargoes including containers, commodities, manufactured and retail goods. It also manages car terminals, and cruise and ferry boats, and supports renewables and offshore services.
The lighting refit covers installation of low-carbon LED lighting from local Northumberland firm Raytec, alongside Telensa’s PLANet lighting control application. Over 800 LED lights have already being connected across the 250-hectare site on the River Tyne. The project is expected to be completed by August 2019; the total number of lights was not disclosed.
Steven Clapperton, harbour master at the Port of Tyne, said: “The Port of Tyne is committed to investing in intelligent infrastructure to develop the Port’s long-term future and sustainability. Making the Port’s outdoor lighting smart will reduce our energy and maintenance costs, and provide greater flexibility to alter light levels remotely across our entire site.”
Will Gibson, founder and chief commercial officer at Telensa, said: “We are delighted to be working with Port of Tyne, the latest in a series of deployments at ports and airports around the world as they look to make their lighting adaptive, reduce their carbon footprints and deploy a network for smart sensors.”
The Port of Tyne adds £690 million value to the local economy, it claims, supporting over 14,000 jobs.
Telensa has been busy confirming smart lighting deals. Sandwell Council in the West Midlands has appointed Telensa to overhaul its street lighting infrastructure, with 11,000 lights slated to be upgraded by 2022.
At the end of April, Telensa announced it is working with Samsung on smart city projects around streetlighting and data governance, with work slated in South Korea, followed by wider deployments across Asia Pacific and in the United States.
The pair will also bring Samsung’s knowhow in 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain to its smart city works, it said. Samsung SDS, the digital arm of Samsung, has signed up to UK firm Telensa’s Urban Data Project, a cloud offering that promises stringent data access and sharing controls, enabling cities to establish a “trust infrastructure” around their data usage, which seeks to keep faith with citizens.
The Urban Data Project initiative launched in Cambridge, in the UK, in February, brings together Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Smart Cambridge. Earlier this month, Belfast-based digital services provider Kainos was announced as lead partner for the ramp-up and rollout of the project to additional smart cities.
