City of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada embarks on energy-saving smart street lighting initiative with Telensa

July 28, 2021: Telensa, the global market leader in connected street lighting and a Signify company that sells its systems under its own brand name, today announced its selection by the City of Vaughan. Located on Toronto’s northern border and one of Canada’s fastest growing cities, Vaughan will deploy Telensa’s PLANet intelligent streetlighting system. The LED streetlight retrofit program includes replacing Vaughan’s 23,000 streetlights with energy-efficient LEDs combined with Telensa wireless controls.

Prior to the installation of their new smart controls, the City of Vaughan’s streetlights accounted for approximately 20 per cent of the City’s overall energy consumption. The City-wide LED Streetlight Retrofit Program:

has upgraded streetlights to improve road safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers
reduced energy consumption, costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the operation of the City’s streetlight network
and is expected to achieve approximately $1 million in cost savings annually through a reduction in energy consumption

The LED program is backed by the City’s Corporate Energy Fund, which is designed specifically to financially support and implement energy retrofit projects.

Telensa’s PLANet is an end-to-end intelligent street lighting solution, 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. With more than 2 million lights connected, Telensa’s PLANet is the world’s most popular connected streetlight system.

Jack Graziosi, Director - Infrastructure Delivery, City of Vaughan, explains “Our LED streetlight retrofit program provides a safer, more agreeable lit environment for citizens. 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 (2018-2022) with respect to environmental stewardship and operational performance priorities.”

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