The location and context

Riyadh (/rɨˈjɑːd/) is the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 7.3 million people as the urban center of a region with a population of close to 9 million people. Home of both historical sites (as Masmak Fortress) and impressive modern architecture (the distinctive Kingdom Center sky scraper), Riyadh is an important administrative, commercial and touristic center right in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula.

In order to achieve an appropriate mix of capabilities for a successful implementation, the entire project involved 2 companies: Saudi Delta Group (project owner and local installation partner) and Flashnet (smart city and smart energy solutions provider).

The challenge

The municipality desired to improve the street lighting management efficiency and to test a state-of-the-art streetlight control system, without necessarily replacing the existing infrastructure (fixtures, cables and power cabinets). Riyadh was looking for an already established street lighting CMS solution, with proven successful operation in Saudi Arabia and that could offer stable communication, a secure control infrastructure and extended retrofitting capabilities. Pole impact and potential lighting infrastructure deterioration was seen as an opportunity to test some of the available smart city sensing functionalities, like pole impact sensor and verticality sensor. Additionally, Riyadh was interested to secure its system by using a closed communication network and having the management software installed on local servers.

The argument

inteliLIGHT®’s PLC solution offers extended retrofitting capabilities. At the moment, it was one of the very few solutions focusing on retrofitting, adapting to electromagnetic ballasts and older lamps, rather than replacing the entire infrastructure. The inteliLIGHT StreetLight Control software could be installed on local servers, accommodating another critical customer request.

Furthermore, the system communicates securely over the existing power cables, establishing a reliable and reasonably fast connection without additional investments and civil works. Open protocols allow inteliLIGHT® integration with other functionalities besides street lighting control and the lamp-level control keeps the grid continuously powered up. This way, additional equipment can be powered and managed directly through the street lighting grid even during the day, when the legacy street lighting systems are powered off.

Technical solution

Main inteliLIGHT streetlight control system

1. 483 x inteliLIGHT FPX-220 ON/OFF controller. Designed to be used in controlling decorative lighting, architectural lighting (using lamps up to 500W) and contactors. A universal device, inteliLIGHT® FPX-220 operates with any lamp or electric device by controlling the power supply of the connected unit.
2. 25038 x inteliLIGHT FPM-402 electromagnetic ballast controller. Compatible with lamps using electromagnetic ballast up to 400W (both HPS and HID), it allows ON/OFF and dimming control in addition to full electrical parameter reading.
3. 242 x Remote Terminal Unit equipment sets (FPC-200 data concentrator, FNM-232 electric network analyzer and FRB-110 intelligent communications router).
4. inteliLIGHT streetlight control software

Additional functionalities and integrations: dispatch center, integrating all the system functionalities (including requested pole impact and verticality sensors).

The financial solution

The project was financed entirely by the municipality of Riyadh.

The deployment

The dispatch center was the first functional system segment, as all the other system components needed to be integrated here.

The actual field deployment started in April 2012 and was finalized in April 2014. Since the system is fully scalable, parts of the system were functional right after the first RTU installations. The municipality and local implementation partners were able to schedule the installation flow according to their priorities during the two years, as a consequence of the inteliLIGHT® system scalability.

About Saudi Delta Group

Established in 1999, Saudi Delta Group (SDG) is a leading Riyadh-based, ISO certified and hundred percent Saudi owned group. The group has several companies providing services in diverse business areas, which include Telecommunications, Constructions, Lighting, Environment, Healthcare Applications, Media, Hospitality, Information Technology, Human Resources and Industrial manufacturing. More details on http://www.saudideltagroup.com/

About FLASHNET and inteliLIGHT®:

Founded in 2005, FLASHNET is a leader in intelligent energy management systems, with worldwide operations. Its hardware and software solutions integrate the latest IT, energy and telecommunications technologies in order to create and implement intelligent systems for smarter cities and better infrastructure. For further information, please visit www.flashnet.ro, www.inteliLIGHT.eu