Maryland’s largest gas and electric utility Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) is to deploy 260,000 Itron smart streetlights.

This will help reduce energy consumption and enhance the wellbeing and safety of the community. BGE will use its existing Itron multi-purpose IoT network to connect the smart streetlights, which are expected to be deployed by 2026.

With safety top of mind, Itron’s smart lighting automatically detects lamp and lighting power supply failures when they occur, enabling BGE to respond to problems in a timely manner. With each issue, maintenance crews will receive critical information, such as the location of the failure and the lamp type, so they can respond immediately and send a maintenance crew to address the issue.

Itron’s technology monitors several parameters to help identify streetlight problems before they occur.

As an additional safety measure for Maryland residents and motorists, BGE will be able to control lighting levels instantly or on a scheduled basis. The utility can adjust each streetlight with on-off and dimming functionality.

BGE will take advantage of Itron’s Streetlight Vision (SLV) central management system, SELC networked lighting controllers (NLCs) and SLV:Go, an integrated field operations platform from Itron partner TerraGo Technologies to accelerate deployment and improve efficiencies.

BGE will use the proven and scalable SLV platform, delivered through a software-as-a-service model, to manage and monitor the smart streetlights added to its existing multi-purpose IoT network.

The SLV platform is extensible, allowing BGE to add other smart-city applications in the future. As part of its other smart lighting deployments, the SELC NLC is already the preferred smart lighting controller used by Exelon, BGE’s parent company.

“BGE strives to increase the value of our energy infrastructure investments while bringing added benefits to our customers,” said Eric Barger, principal project manager at BGE. “With Itron, we can effectively manage, control and monitor the smart streetlights across our network while improving public safety. We also look forward to enhancing our lighting maintenance operations and becoming more energy efficient with Itron.”

John Marcolini, senior vice president at Itron, added: “Extending the value of BGE’s IoT network through the deployment of 260,000 smart streetlights demonstrates the scalability of Itron’s multi-application platform. We are excited to build upon our long-standing relationship with BGE and to help the utility achieve its energy and customer service goals by continuing to upgrade, modernise and expand its electrical systems.”