The U.S. Department of Energy's Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium has released a draft Model Specification for Adaptive Control and Remote Monitoring of LED Roadway Luminaires. The draft specification is posted online for public review and comment by Consortium members, manufacturers, and other interested lighting professionals.

The estimated 26.5 million streetlights in the U.S. consume as much electricity each year as 1.9 million households, and generate greenhouse gas emissions equal to that produced by 2.6 million cars. Switching these streetlights to LED can save energy and money, and incorporating remote monitoring and adaptive lighting control systems can increase those savings substantially.

Developed by a Consortium committee made up of representatives from municipalities, utilities, and other stakeholders, the draft specification is intended to serve as both a set of high-level requirements and a template for translating unique user needs into clear and consistent specification language. The hope is that it will support the breadth of system architectures and features available in the marketplace while encouraging the development of standards that reduce user risk and ultimately accelerate the adoption of this energy-saving technology.

The draft specification is available for review, and comments are encouraged from Consortium members, manufacturers, and others to further the specification development process and achieve the level of interoperability and functionality desired by end users.