The Canadian city of Vaughan near Toronto is to deploy a smart lighting system from UK firm Telensa, recently taken over by Signify, formerly Philips Lighting.

Telensa’s Planet intelligent streetlighting system has been selected by Vaughan, one of Canada’s fastest growing cities. The LED streetlight retrofit programme includes replacing Vaughan’s 23,000 streetlights with energy-efficient LEDs combined with Telensa wireless controls.

Before the installation of the smart controls, Vaughan’s streetlights accounted for approximately 20 per cent of the city’s overall energy consumption. The city-wide LED streetlight retrofit programme has upgraded streetlights to improve road safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers, reduced energy consumption, costs and greenhouse gas emissions related to the operation of the city’s streetlight network, and is expected to achieve approximately $1m in cost savings annually through a reduction in energy consumption.

The LED programme is backed by the city’s Corporate Energy Fund, which is designed to provide financial support and implement energy retrofit projects.

Planet is an end-to-end intelligent street lighting offering, consisting of wireless nodes connecting individual lights, a dedicated wireless network owned by the city and a central management application. The system pays for itself in reduced energy and maintenance costs, improves quality of service through automatic fault reporting, and turns streetlight poles into hubs for smart city sensors.

“Our LED streetlight retrofit programme provides a safer, more agreeable lit environment for citizens,” said Jack Graziosi, Vaughan’s director for infrastructure delivery. “It also saves money and reduces our carbon footprint, so it’s a win-win. Adding Telensa wireless controls future-proofs our lighting operation and provides a platform for adding smart city sensors. This key infrastructure initiative aligns with the city’s Service Excellence Strategic Plan with respect to environmental stewardship and operational performance priorities.”

With more than two million lights connected, Planet is one of the world’s most popular connected streetlight system.

“We’re delighted to partner with Vaughan, a city with a track record of innovation in energy savings and greenhouse gas reducing technologies,” said Andy Gowen, CEO of Telensa. “We’re looking forward to working together in future on low-cost smart city applications enabled by the city’s new lighting network”