VietNamNet Bridge – If successfully developed and applied in a large scale, IPNET, the control unit invented by a bachelor of the Hanoi National University, will help operate the public lightening system more effectively, thus helping save millions of dollars a year.

Currently in Hanoi, HCM City and some other cities, the public lightening systems are turned on or off manually or timing fixed. Therefore, it happens that street lights are still on when it is already broad daylight and lamps are not useful, which causes a big waste to the state budget.

Nguyen Dinh Nam, a former student of the Hanoi University of Technology, has blamed the electricity waste on the lack of a precise control technology, which allows to turn on and off the lighting system when people want.

Therefore, Nam and his research team have invented an IPNET control unit which allows to fix the current problem.

According to the research team, the outdoors lighting system is used to provide artificial light to the cities when the sunlight is not enough for people to conduct outdoor activities. And that is the time when the public lighting system needs to be turned on.

There are a lot of turn on/off mechanisms being applied, of which manual turning on/off proves to be the most popular one. Besides, people can turn on or off by timing fixing mechanism or with photocell. However, all the mechanisms are ineffective enough, which lead to the electricity waste, and in many cases, cannot ensure the optimum quality.

Meanwhile, IPNET is believed to settle all the problems by using astronomy knowledge to define time of sunrise and sunset on the locations that need lighting, based on the longitude, latitude, altitude. “IPNET can calculate the time for turning on and off of the lighting system every day,” Nam explained.

According to Nam, such a product has not been available on the Vietnamese market. Meanwhile, some foreign companies can provide similar products. However, since it is very difficult to use the products, they seem to be unsuitable to Vietnam.

Also according to Nam, with the current timing fixing mechanism, Vietnam needs the lightening for 4865 hours a year and it wastes 538 hours of lighting. Meanwhile, if IPNET can be applied in a large scale, Vietnam will be able to save 8-26 percent of electricity. As such, Vietnam could have saved 11 million dollars in 2010 for the public lighting system.

Nam said that the weak point of the product in the experimental period is that IPNET is still not smart enough to turn the lighting system on sooner than usual on cloudy days which get dark soon. However, the problem has been settled by the installation of a mini observation station.

IPNET has been utilized by Hapulico, the lightening company in Hanoi, in a trial basis on Van Ho 1, Van Ho 2 and Van Ho 3 streets. If everything goes smoothly, the product will be utilized in the whole city of Hanoi. Hapulico now is running 100,000 street lamps, while small companies are controlling smaller systems.

Experts also have admitted the economical characteristic of the product. IPNET has the production cost of 2 million dong only, while it can bring high benefits. A billboard that uses 40 250W Halogen lamps, i.e. the capacity of 10 KW, will cost 100,000 dong per day for lighting from 5 pm to 10 pm (2000 dong per kwh of electricity). Meanwhile, if using IPNET, the investors will be able to take back the investment capital within 3 months.

Experts, who have verified the product, have certified that the product has new creative idea which can bring high economic value, while FPT Research Institute has signed a contract on cooperating for registering for patent protection. The idea has also been recognized by the World Bank and the Ministry of Planning and Investment on the 2011 Creative Day.

The experts have also urged to commercialize the product in order to put the product into wide scale use, saying that such a product has a very important significance in the current context, when Vietnam is seriously lacking electricity. In 2011, Vietnam has to import 4.6 billion kwh of electricity, or 4 percent of the national electricity consumption.

Source: VnMedia