Recently, several efforts have been made in a number of U.S. cities to reduce energy consumption by converting street light bulbs to light emitting diodes (LEDs). In San Francisco, utilities and companies have been working with city governments to implement smart controller technologies.

In March, the first 50 LED street lights were installed in the city. Helping make the city smart lights a reality are the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Pacific Gas and Electric, BetaLED and the Echelon Corporation.

The switch to smart LED lights could, according to Mayor Gavin Newsom, take the city's energy efficiency strategy to a new level with a "50 to 70 percent increase in efficiency" with these new technologies. While reducing energy use is an issue-- as street lights often can account for 40 percent of a city's total electricity costs -- the new system is intended to serve as a "deterrent for street level crimes, street level drug dealing... and prostitution" per Newsom.

The streetlights could flash to notify emergency personnel or serve as a strobe light to demarcate areas. Ed Harrington, general manager of the SFPUC, said that these lights will "last for about twenty years, that's more than twice as long than the current lights."

The next 44,000 LED street lights will be installed soon throughout the city and county of San Francisco. BetaLED will be providing the LED lights, while Echelon will be providing the control and monitoring platform.

Echelon's LonWorks networking platform was recently upgraded to 2.0, which is meant to improve the integration of energy monitoring and control systems into their existing networks. The platform is used worldwide, though less in the US than Europe. For example, in Oslo, Norway, an intelligent outdoor lighting system cut energy use by 62 percent.

Palo Alto is also using Lonworks in a demonstration-scale smart grid street lighting project.