Siemens upgrades Stratos platform and wins LED streetlight retrofit contract in USA

Siemens ITS has upgraded its Stratos hosted traffic management platform, and in the USA has been chosen by the City of Knoxville, Tennessee, to retrofit nearly 30,000 streetlights with new energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Siemens has completed major upgrades to the latest hosted application modules for its Stratos cloud-based strategic traffic management platform. With the latest updates to the Stratos software’s Strategy Manager, Traffic Signals and Journey Time modules, it is now possible to share data seamlessly and even create strategies that control a neighboring authority’s equipment.

The release also sees the start of the migration to an HTML5 user interface, with Traffic Signals, Journey Time and User Management functions all making this important transition, with other modules scheduled over the coming months. The company says the benefits of hosted services are again demonstrated by the upgrade, as the new release also includes the latest security updates.

“The latest release of the Stratos Strategy Manager module sees the introduction of an enhanced debug capability, enabling users to quickly identify strategies that are competing for control of equipment, and which one currently has priority,” explained David Pregon, senior product manager for systems at Siemens. “New actions have also been added, including the ability to send tweets, emails and SMS.”

The project in Knoxville is one of the USA’s largest LED streetlight retrofits to date, with the upgrade slated to cut the city’s streetlight operation budget in half, by saving US$2m annually in energy and maintenance costs, with the investment expected to pay for itself in less than 10 years.

The new LEDs will give off whiter light, improve visibility for residents, and will help the city in its efforts to reduce municipal greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020.

Siemens will provide turnkey design and installation services for the project, including testing and demonstration. Once the design phase is complete, Siemens expects to begin installation across the city in spring 2018, with the project due for completion by mid-2019.

“These new LED lights, over 50% more efficient than those currently installed throughout Knoxville, will not only provide residents with better visibility and safer streets, but will significantly reduce the impact lighting has the city’s bottom line,” said Marcus Welz, CEO of Siemens ITS.

“Infrastructure improvements like this are excellent ways for cities across the country to improve quality of life for their citizens, save a significant amount in energy costs, and meet their sustainability goals.”