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    1. Energy Efficiency

    Duquesne Light Co. tackling Streetlight and Smart City technology overhaul

    March 10, 2023
    The partnership with Itron will see the deployment of around 60,000 Itron mesh-enabled streetlight nodes that provide secure two-way monitoring and control for outdoor street and area lighting
    Downtown Pittsburgh. Image credit By Dllu - Own work, Wikimedia Commons
    Downtown Pittsburgh. Image credit By Dllu - Own work, Wikimedia Commons

    Pittsburgh-based utility Duquesne Light Company (DLC) has partnered with technology firm Itron to enhance operational efficiency, modernize its infrastructure and enable smart city applications.

    The partnership will see the deployment of around 60,000 Itron mesh-enabled streetlight nodes that provide secure two-way monitoring and control for outdoor street and area lighting.

    DLC, which supplies electricity to over 600,000 customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, will also leverage Itron’s smart cities central management software Streetlight.Vision (SLV) and SLV:GO integrated field operations platform to optimize streetlight performance with advanced analytics and control capabilities.

    This will enable the utility to improve the customer experience and enhance operations by proactively alerting DLC of lamp failures, power supply failures and location changes, Itron says.

    Additionally, the smart streetlights will provide a multi-application industrial IoT (IIoT) canopy that can support other smart city and smart utility sensors and applications.

    “With our solution, DLC will be able to save energy and improve asset management with real-time visibility into every streetlight while simultaneously laying a foundation for future IIoT and smart city use cases,” said John Marcolini, Senior Vice President of Networked Solutions at Itron.

    “We look forward to modernizing our lighting infrastructure with Itron’s smart street lighting solution, which will improve asset maintenance and enhance operational efficiency while also enabling additional smart city applications as the need arises in the future,” Phillips added.

    Energy efficiency is often called "the first fuel" by proponents because those measures can decrease carbon-greenhouse gas emissions in advance of other heavier investments include renewable energy, microgrids and fleet electrification. Upgrades to lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), windows, insulation and appliances can offer potentially energy costs and emissions savings in the long term, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and other industry advocacy groups.