Smarter lighting, better driving: Gran Canaria installs Signify’s Interact City on main highway

December 15, 2020

• The combination of Philips DigiStreet luminaires and Interact provides an energy saving of 80%
• Minimizes light pollution with the 2700K color temperature fully in compliance with local regulations on preserving night sky without compromising road safety and driving experience
• Zhaga connectors make the highway ready for the future, enabling sensing capabilities for monitoring environmental conditions such as motion, tilt, vibration, and noise

Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, is transforming Gran Canaria’s most important highway, known as GC-1, into a smart highway with Interact City. The Cabildo (council) of Gran Canaria has upgraded the lighting system to LEDs that provide a 2700K color temperature. This supports its main objective of preserving the outstanding conditions for viewing the night sky as required by the Canarian Observatories. It also helps to respect the island’s biodiversity and reduces CO₂ emissions and the island’s carbon footprint without compromising road safety and driving experience. The new lighting has already resulted in positive reactions from road users, who report having a better driving experience.

The Gran Canaria South Highway (GC-1) connects the island’s capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and its international airport to the tourist destinations on the south side of the island. The highway was illuminated in 1990 with the Philips Traffic Vision streetlights. As the luminaires reached the end of their lifetime, the Cabildo seized the opportunity to improve lighting performance and reduce energy consumption. The Cabildo wanted a high-quality luminaire with a long lifetime and chose to install Philips DigiStreet LEDs with Interact City connected lighting software.

“We have developed a clear and sustainable project for our lighting system. It’s a major revolution in energy efficiency and cost savings,” said Antonio Morales, President of the Cabildo de Gran Canarias. “Upgrading to the Philips DigiStreet LEDs with Interact City results in economic savings of installed power with 50%, amortizing the cost of installation in less than the luminaires’ lifetime.”

With Interact City, the Cabildo de Gran Canarias can monitor the lighting in real time, collect and analyze data, and assign maintenance tasks to technicians. The Philips DigiStreet LED luminaires avoid glare, improve visual comfort, offer greater uniformity of light distribution, and render colors accurately. Combining Philips DigiStreet Large LED lights with standardized Zhaga connectors and Interact City gives highway operators ultimate control.

“The luminaires with Zhaga connectors make the highway ready for the future, enabling sensing capabilities for monitoring environmental conditions such as motion, tilt, vibration, and noise. This helps the Cabildo to gain insights into issues to support decision-making and act where possible,” says Josep Martínez, Market Leader Iberia at Signify.

The system allows for simple maintenance, point-by-point management and enables real-time adjustment to deal with any situation on the highway. For example, increasing light in an area where an accident has occurred or dimming the lights to 30% when no vehicles are on the road. The street lighting system can also offer the Cabildo new connected capabilities as time goes on.

Another important aspect of the project was the local regulations concerning the night sky. The Canary Islands have the darkest skies in Europe, offering exceptional conditions to observe the stars and hosting several internationally renowned observatories. The luminaires must comply with all regulations of the Instituto Astrofísico de Canarias (IAC) and the Light Pollution Regulation for the Canary Islands.