In the past weeks, several efforts have been made in a number of cities to reduce energy consumption by converting street light bulbs to light emitting diode panels. In San Francisco, utilities and companies have been working with city officials to implement smart controller technologies.

In March, Mayor Gavin Newsom activated an LED street light with an iPhone, marking the deployment of the first 50 units. 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.

This change 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 demonstration began with 50 LED panels in the edgy downtown Tenderloin area, and the next 44,000 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 make improve the integration of energy monitoring and control systems into their existing networks. The platform is used internationally, though less in the US than Europe. For example, in Oslo, Norway, an intelligent outdoor lighting system cut energy use by 62 percent.

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

With new developments in control and lighting technology, LEDs should be finding their way into even more cities as smart grid implementation moves closer.

You can watch the video of San Francisco's efficient LED street light kick-off here.