Our client was a public electrical utility company of a state which carries out the business of generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for a state.

The utility company encountered multifaceted challenges concerning streetlights that needed to be addressed. Energy consumption was a significant concern, as streetlights often remained switched on unnecessarily even during daylight hours. This resulted in excessive energy usage and wastage. Additionally, the utility company faced recurring complaints from the public due to prolonged delays in replacing or repairing malfunctioning streetlights. These delays affected public safety and caused dissatisfaction among consumers. Moreover, the lack of a reliable monitoring system prevented the utility company from accurately assessing the energy consumption of streetlights, leading to financial losses. Despite considerable investments and efforts, the utility company struggled to meet consumer expectations and achieve satisfactory outcomes.

The business analyst team from blackrock worked closely with the utility company in determining the best possible solution which would not just solve all these problems but also add more value to them. After many rounds of discussion with the staff of the utility company at different levels, blackrock came up with a list of features that would be most apt for the utility company.

The hardware design team came up with a board design using efficient, cost-effective, and advanced components to ensure a maintenance-less product. The controller was designed as an IoT product, which would communicate its status directly to the SCADA system and would allow it to be controlled remotely.

The team also provided web and mobile-based applications for remote management of the controllers including scheduling the light-on/off time, remotely switch-on/off the lights, and viewing real-time status. The system was also secured using password protection.

• The utility company deployed around 20,000 streetlight controller units.
• In the first month of operation, the utility saved 10% of energy and cost.
• The downtime of streetlights was brought down to average 2 days from 9 days.