As part of its Vision Zero initiative and broader sustainability goals, Washington, D.C. launched a landmark $309 million public–private partnership (P3) to modernize its aging infrastructure by replacing tens of thousands of streetlights with energy-efficient ones such as LEDs. As important, the project addresses the city’s needs for advanced control and predictive maintenance capabilities, key enablers for reducing energy consumption, improving public safety and streamlining operations across the city. 

“I am excited that DDOT is leading the charge to complete the nation’s largest urban streetlight modernization project,” added the District Department of Transportation Director Everett Lott. “LEDs provide better lighting and fewer outages, helping us to improve safety and meet our Vision Zero goals” says D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.  

Washington. D.C.  aimed to modernize its lighting without altering its iconic landscape: poles, fixtures and lamp posts were preserved to maintain historic integrity. Yet aging high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights dominated, consuming energy, underreporting outages, and failing to support modern monitoring or adaptive control. The city needed a solution that could support the transition to energy-efficient LED fixtures, provide granular control, detect faults, support Wi‑Fi expansion and integrate with city software – all without large civil works or infrastructure changes. 

Just as importantly, it had to be interoperable: capable of working across systems, vendors and technologies to ensure long-term flexibility and alignment with the capital’s broader smart city vision. 

Faced with the dual challenge of preserving the historic urban landscape while introducing modern infrastructure, Washington, D.C. required a smart lighting solution that was not only technologically advanced but also easy to install, adaptable, secure, and minimally invasive.  

Flashnet, in collaboration with the Plenary Infrastructure DC (PIDC) consortium, ENGIE and EQUANS, delivered a remote street lighting management solution that combines advanced controllers with powerful management software. This integrated system enables real-time monitoring, adaptive lighting, predictive maintenance, and seamless integration with the city’s existing platforms, all while supporting long-term scalability and smart city goals. 

To support the city’s infrastructure particularities and aesthetics, the project used inteliLIGHT NEMA controllers, with easy plug-and-play installations and compact form factors suitable even for architectural lighting.  These controllers enabled secure, real-time and cost-effective NB-IoT/LTE-M connectivity, with over-the-air (OTA) updates.  

One of the unique aspects of this implementation is its support for broader smart city goals. Because it allowed the lighting grid to be powered throughout the day, the existing streetlight poles can also serve as infrastructure for municipal Wi-Fi routers and other IoT devices – offering digital equity to underserved neighborhoods with no additional trenching or power lines required.