The City of Chalkida will be the first in Greece, where pilot “smart” parking and “smart” lighting systems will be installed, supported by a single smart city platform. The two applications will help to facilitate parking, to ease traffic congestion, and to reduce energy consumption in the city.
The aim of the project, which will be jointly implemented by the OTE Group, Cisco, Kafkas and OTS, is to demonstrate in practice the benefits that a city and its residents can enjoy from adopting smart technologies.
Smart Parking: Less time and pollutants.
The project will be installed in the center of Chalkida and will include special smart parking sensors, which through a mobile application, developed by OTS, will inform drivers about the availability of free parking spaces and will subsequently direct them to the available spot should one exists. If the selected location gets in the meantime occupied by another user, then the driver will be automatically routed to the nearest available position.
The application is expected to significantly reduce the time spent in order to find a parking space. This is estimated at 20 minutes on average in urban centers. Thus, it will ease traffic and lower the pollutants emissions from vehicles. At the same time, the Municipal Authority will be able to more effectively manage the city parking spaces based on the information regarding the average parking time and by controlling those violating traffic regulations.
Smart Lighting: More than 60% reduction in power consumption.
Similarly, the LED intelligent lighting systems that will be installed can adapt in real time at various illumination levels, depending on the season and time of day. Through this function a significant reduction in power consumption is expected to occur, since it is estimated that LED based lighting systems save more than 60% in power consumption.
In addition, a specialised application will make lighting management by the IT department easier. The personnel in charge of this application will be able to intervene directly when necessary and will have a real time information on the lighting systems’ status.
Single smart city management platform:
The data of both these smart solutions will be gathered through the network in OTE’s Cloud system and will be subsequently transferred to Cisco’s Smart & Connected Digital Platform management platform.
This platform will enable the interaction of the applied solutions, the consolidated display of results and their management by the City’s authorized employees. Additionally, the Smart & Connected Digital Platform will provide joint management capabilities of the data generated and will be able to incorporate new applications that will function as one single entity.
The Mayor of Chalkida Mr. Christos Pagonis said: “We are extremely pleased that with the help of such important partners, Chalkida becomes the first city in Greece that installs smart parking and lighting systems.
Our priority is to ensure a better quality of life for our residents and to protect the environment through innovative technologies. Our goal is to render Chalkida a “green” and “smart” rolemodel city for the whole country. ”
The project is expected to be completed in early 2017.