Delta has been developing LED smart street light solutions since 2010. Today, the cumulative number of Delta LED street lights installed exceeds 600,000. After achieving a top three market share in Taiwan, Delta went international with its own brand for the first time in 2017. This includes Delta's participation in a plan to build a smart city for Jakarta, Indonesia, through a local partner network. For the project, the Delta Smart Street Lighting Solution passed a high standards test from the Jakarta city government for a new generation of municipal infrastructure. The project team is also making itself well-known for its ability to execute international projects overseas.
Jakarta is one of the fastest-growing cities in Southeast Asia, with a population exceeding 10 million. The city of Jakarta boasts a historical legacy from the Dutch colonial era as well as the modern skyscrapers that line its streets. It is a city where tradition and modernity are intertwined. Indonesia is the largest economy of ASEAN, and the capital Jakarta is its economic, cultural and political center. In 2014, Jakarta launched its blueprint for a smart city, to move toward a low-carbon, intelligent modern city. Energy-saving and carbon-reducing LED smart street lights were positioned as the primary infrastructure for urban transformation, which would enable the city government to reduce carbon emissions and save a lot on electricity bills, while allowing local residents to enjoy a brighter and safer environment. "It is possible that the neural networks for the city will be connected," said Mr. Syamsul Bakhri, an official of the Jakarta City Street Light Management Office, explaining Jakarta's vision to lead a new generation of green and smart cities.
Due to the attention of the city government, the Jakarta smart street light project took more than two years to confirm product specifications and verify the production process. In addition, to ensure a smooth project implementation, the product and project teams with the local partner took more than three months to carefully conduct site surveys, inspect warehouse environments, and confirm installation process design before project execution officially began. However, for its first time on foreign soil, Delta faces not only a test of its own strength, but also a heated brand war.
Wu Xiangzhen, product coordination manager from Delta's street lighting team, remembers the pointed questioning of local competitors and the challenge of describing the Delta brand to Jakarta city government officials. Besides many visits to Indonesia to explain the product features and demonstrate the team's professional capabilities, Delta also provided street lighting products for installation tests by the Jakarta city government. Delta invited Indonesian officials to visit the R&D team in Taiwan to see the actual Wuhu factory production process, which finally helped win the trust of Indonesian officials who then signed off on the project.
Since the client is a foreign government unit, the details of the project implementation were more complicated. Managers Su Wenjie and Zhang Shijie, who are in charge of the on-site inspection, acceptance and installation process, have mixed feelings. They said cultural and language barriers made preparation work more complex and critical. In particular, the Indonesian team was subordinate to the government unit and had no experience with Delta's smart street lighting system. Detailed planning and arrangements were made in advance for each construction team. Construction plans detailed the lights each team was responsible for. The installation process including how to scan QR codes, how to use Apps to complete wireless connection, and more, were also explained and clarified over and over again to ensure smooth implementation and minimize the frequency of accidents. At the execution site, a staff member was assigned to ride in the car for each installation route to ensure the quality of construction. Support was provided at all times to solve installation problems or answer onsite questions. In addition, a stop point was set each day to review installation problems, test specific street lights, and check the quality of wiring to ensure problems could be solved on the spot. From lack of familiarity with the product with the language barrier, to finally completing the project successfully, the local work team forged a deep friendship with the Delta team, which was the biggest gain beyond initial expectations.
Delta's team of professionals was dedicated to overcoming the many difficulties and making Jakarta's smart streetlight project a top success story in Indonesia. The good news is the smart street light installation was an important step toward the construction of a smart city for Jakarta as it became a policy widely recognized by the citizens of the city.
Green energy and smart cities are already mainstream trends in global urban planning. The concept of a smart city encourages governments and major cities to use technology to improve monitoring systems and enhance the safety of citizens while reducing energy consumption and increasing the efficiency of operations. Lin Kun-Yueh, Director of the Delta Lighting Division, said that the Delta project execution team followed Delta's company mission of “To provide innovative, clean, and energy-efficient solutions for a better tomorrow” to achieve success for the Jakarta project. He noted that the leading position of Jakarta in ASEAN will help promote the concept of green energy and the construction of smart LED street lights in other Southeast Asian countries, and encourage more policies for environmental protection.
The proportion of smart street lights that can be remotely monitored is nearly 10%, and growing rapidly every year. Currently, Delta's smart street lighting system installed in Jakarta has more than 20 thousand LED smart street lights with wireless networking functions. Through remote monitoring, maintenance management, and lighting control functions, Delta's LED smart street light management platform saves on electricity consumption by at least 48% when compared to traditional high-pressure sodium lamps. The platform monitors to understand the operation status of the street lights. Personnel are dispatched immediately to handle alerts from faulty street lights, which reduces not only electricity fees, but also patrol and maintenance manpower. Delta's smart street light solution is equipped with wireless networking technology, which provides lighting and can also be used for video surveillance, inspection of air quality, temperature, and water level, information boards, electric vehicle charging, and more. The wireless network connection function allows the street lights that are dense in the city to be woven into an intensive communication network and to become the solid backbone of a smart city.