Alabama Power Completes First Phase of Lighting Trial

Alabama Power completed the first of a three-phase Sensus VantagePoint lighting control solution beta trial. The first phase included remote monitoring and control of the area lighting at the company’s Montgomery, Ala., operations center. This trial is being used to evaluate the effectiveness of the control solution to conserve energy, increase efficiency and provide status or condition of the lights in the trial.

“While there were only a few lights in the trial, the system met our expectations to be able to control the lights and provide status,” said Jim Fleming, principal engineer at Alabama Power.

Sensus VantagePoint is an intelligent lighting control solution that consists of a lighting control module, intuitive and easy-to-use lighting control software and the FlexNet communication network. It is available as a customer-owned and -operated system or through a network hosting and software as a service (SaaS) business model.

VantagePoint gives public service providers control with a lighting solution and module that fits right into standard socket fixtures. The module identifies the type of light (legacy or LED) and adjusts to accommodate capabilities such as flashing and dimming. Then the FlexNet network lets users keep an eye on all those lights at once—from the comfort of a desk chair.

“Additional phases of the project will include installations for a larger and more dispersed population of lights to further evaluate the effectiveness and capabilities of the system,” said Fleming.

Data is carried over the FlexNet communication system, a long-range radio network that serves as a dedicated and secure two-way communications highway.

“The FlexNet system can be applied across multiple operations of our business and, by testing VantagePoint, the value of our network continues to reach new levels of optimization,” said Fleming.

Source: Sensus