Road Lighting Solution for Copenhagen

The Thor lantern from Thorn offers Scandinavian design and ideal lighting performance for the application. Connected via a wireless lighting control management system, future proof lighting control management can be realized, which is an important aspect for the Smart City.

Background

The City of Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the world’s smartest and most sustainable cities. Having set an ambitious target to become carbon neutral by 2025, Copenhagen is currently transforming how it manages energy, and is on track to become the first carbon neutral city in the world. Another key requirement for achieving Copenhagen’s carbon neutral target, is a substantial reduction of the energy consumption from the street lighting. To meet this target the almost 20 000 street lanterns with mainly high-pressure sodium lamps needed replacing.

Lighting objectives

The City of Copenhagen’s lighting objectives were as follows:

Replace the high pressure sodium lamps on Copenhagen’s residential roads, larger streets and highways with an efficient custom designed LED lantern

Achieve substantial energy and CO2 savings to help the city achieve its target of being carbon neutral by 2025

Improve the quality of street lighting to increase security and comfort

Integrate lighting control with traffic density data to adapt lighting levels according to road use in the future

Create a central management system for the effective management and control of street lighting

Developing a custom lantern for the City of Copenhagen

The renewal project, which includes intelligent lighting controls too, is managed by Citelum, who won the contract in 2013 when the City of Copenhagen tendered it out. Thorn delivered the customized road lantern Thor for this project. The Thor luminaire meets the specific project requirements, including the mounting options of either catenary or post-top.

Having already designed other successful Thorn luminaires, Thorn appointed Danish lighting designer Morten Lyhne to help realise Copenhagen’s objectives. His design is characterized by simplicity. It combines functionality with aesthetics, and always include a certain intelligence as well. This becomes apparent in the design of the LED road lantern Thor, which he created for Thorn.

With a round, simple design the luminaire continues Copenhagen’s tradition for round lighting fixtures. The luminaire efficacy of 97lm/W fulfils the performance requirements. The polycarbonate top dome can house an additional LED module and as a result provide the specified uplight. This indirect light ensures that the luminaire keeps its shaped appearance, also when it is dark. The dome also provides the smart city requirements, i.e. an antenna and electronics can be mounted inside the fixture.

Approximately 8 500 Thor lanterns mounted in 8m height catenary system as well as 1 500 post-top luminaires in 6m height create the Scandinavian look and feel, and integrate harmoniously into the cityscape. With different colour temperatures to choose from, and distances between the luminaires from 28m to 30m, main roads as well as residential areas, plazas and parks are lit up according to the road standards.

Benefits of the new custom designed Thor lantern

The new Thor lantern, custom designed and developed by Thorn, is providing the following benefits for the City of Copenhagen:

Energy efficient LED lighting (97Llm/W) which reduces energy consumption by up to 60%

Maximised energy savings with light output management through the night. Control options currently include a pre-set schedule and daylight dimming. In the future smart data will be used to adjust light levels automatically to road use

Better quality of light for improved comfort and safety (luminance levels of 0,75 to 1 cd/m2; illuminance levels of 2,5 to 15 lux; various colour temperatures; colour rendering index of 80)

Reliable build, and set for simple maintenance to substantially reduce costs of operation during a very long expected lifetime

Easy to maintain with instant failure/fault alerts to the central management system

Designed to enhance Copenhagen’s distinctive architecture

Connectivity for energy efficiency, monitoring and traffic management

The new Copenhagen road lighting is connected via a wireless control system from SilverSpring Networks, which is based on the “wireless IPv6” protocol and is compatible with the servicing software from Citelum. Based on this, the functionalities of the luminaires can be used for smart lighting management, and as a result for an energy efficient operation as well as a complete monitoring accompanied by planned maintenance intervals. There are preparations in place to control the luminaires based on daylight levels in the future. Another possibility is to connect the lighting with traffic management data and adapt the illuminance – without affecting safety – based on traffic density and the situation on the road. If the traffic density is lower, the luminaires, which have a wet road optic optimised for illuminating wet roads, can be dimmed between 30% and 70%. Beyond that the cycle-friendly transport policy of Copenhagen can be included by introducing optional sensors and camera systems, that can be integrated in the Thor luminaire. Cyclists can be detected, and then guided to what seems to indicate the quietest or fastest route. This shows what possibilities data connectivity and technologies offer today, and how much Copenhagen focuses on creating a Smart City that is beneficial for the citizens.

Focusing on the application – the new Thor L

The experience from the demanding project has been used to create the second generation of Thor, which will be launched at L+B. New from Thorn, Thor L is an intelligent urban lantern based on the City of Copenhagen’s custom designed Thor lantern. Thor L offers a truly connected solution for smart, energy efficient lighting. It can incorporate intelligent wireless control systems and is compatible with various communication devices, including sensors and CCTV cameras. Thor L’s polycarbonate top dome allows components to be mounted inside the dome to meet Smart City requirements.

Please click here to watch the Copenhagen project video.