Science & Technology

It may be a latecomer to introduce smart lights on the streets, but Kathmandu Metropolitan City is all set to launch one of Nepal’s biggest smart light projects.

If its plan sees the light of day, some of the main streets of the city will see 2,000 smart lights glowing. But since preparations are still ongoing, that will take some time.

Officials at KMC and Nepal Electricity Authority, the state-owned power utility, are aiming to complete the Rs120 million project by early 2024. Prior to that, several municipalities around the country teamed up with NEA to successfully install smart street lights.

The partnership will see KMC bearing 60 per cent of the expenses, and NEA taking care of the remaining 40 per cent.

Good news for KMC Mayor Balen Shah’s team is this: NEA will also oversee the technical aspects of the project, according to Sunil Lamsal, a consultant engineer at KMC’s Mayor Balen Secretariat.

“The project works, including necessary studies, have already started,” he told NepalMinute.com.

What is a smart street light?

Smart light generally means some kind of technology-hooked light, be it auto on/off tech, Wi-Fi hotspot, CCTV connected or with other features.

So what is the technology behind the smart streetlight?

Pramod Rijal, the project manager and deputy manager overseeing the street light project at NEA, said: “The tech we are introducing will have an auto on/off facility, with an ability to auto dim the lights.”

The lights will be centrally connected to NEA servers by wireless medium, which will feed instructions to the lights to turn on or off or to dim.

“The lights can be programmed to turn on and off according to the sun rise or sun set times in different seasons,” he added.

The server automatically obtains the sunrise and sunset data of Nepal from the internet and instructs the street light post, which will have the technology to process and respond accordingly, Rijal said.

Besides this, the light can also be programmed to auto-dim when there is low or no use.

“No one needs a bright light at midnight as in the evening. So during that time, we can program the light to dim itself,” said Rijal.

Benefits

All of the sensor-rich techs make the street light smart, according to NEA, and this will have “huge benefits” in terms of energy-saving and efficiency.

As the light only turns on and off in the set time duration, there will be no turning on in broad day light.

Rijal said: “That will conserve electricity and, subsequently, it will reflect in KMC’s electricity bills. With this technology, one may not see any defunct street lights.”

According to him, if the light is out of order, the system can automatically send a notification by mail or directly to the phone, which makes locating the broken device easier and “repairing can be prompt”.

The device on the light enables them to readily prepare bills, Rijal said.

When and where?

The study to install the lights is going on, everything planned cannot be guaranteed, said Rijal.
The lights will be installed in the main streets of Kathmandu.

They include the Airport–Tinkune–Maitighar–Kalanki street, the Tripureshwor–Kantipath–Maharajgunj street, the Maitighar-Putalisadak–Baluwatar street.

While most places will have 90 watt lights, wider roads will be fitted with 120 watt lights. The team is trying to finalise the work in a month, after which the project enters the contract phase and subsequently installation works will begin.

“The project itself is a year-long project, so if everything goes well, one can expect 2,000 smart street lamps in 13 to 14 months,” said Rijal.

Why not solar?

Solar street lamps proved quite useful during the energy crisis that Nepal faced until a few years ago. But in the past few years, the scene has changed a lot, said Rijal, adding that solar power faced seasonal limitations.

Solar panels help generate electricity only when sunlight falls on the panel. That means that the amount of electricity generated in different seasons varies because of factors such as sunshine durations and the tilt of the panels.

Additionally, “in dusty and heavily polluted Kathmandu’s environment, the panels need to be regularly cleaned and washed,” said Rijal.

Referring to the solar street light in the Maitighar to Tinkune road section, he said: “One can see plenty of light already turning off at 1-2 am. Either the panel is simply unable to generate enough electricity or the battery is of small capacity.”

Add to that the cost factor. The cost of solar street lights is at least three to four times higher than the lights NEA and KMC are now planning to install.

NEA previously installed similar street lights in Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Bharatpur and Pokhara which cost about Rs30,000 apiece.

“These lights are cheaper to install and still have much higher luminosity [brightness],” Rijal said.
Even with high investments, solar street lights are known to have a short working life, at least in Nepal. In most cases, batteries have gone kaput in five years.