IIT-M students develop intelligent street lighting device

At a time when the city corporation is set to revamp lighting on streets in the extended zones with LED lamps, students from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) have come with a solution that they say can reduce power consumption. They have developed an IoT (Internet of Things) sensor-based low-cost device that can cut down power consumption by half simply by synchronised dimming of lights after dark when not required. The device also lets electricians keep track of faults from a remote location. The team won an award at the Carbon Zero Challenge competition on Friday organised by IIT-M, Industrial Waste Management Association, US Consulate, Chennai, and Polaris, a Virtusa company. Globally the consumption is at 18% to 38% by street lighting. Energy consumption needs to be cut down which is also achievable as people would not be using the streetlights for all the 12 hours, hence maximum brightness would no be required, according to sources.