Tondo Blog

Smart Roadway Lighting Control: Economical Municipal Lighting for Smart Cities

For municipalities looking to modernize their streetlighting and build a foundation for smart city initiatives, Tondo's Edge IQ smart roadway lighting controls, managed through Tondo's Cloud IQ platform, offers a compelling solution. This isn't just an upgrade: Smart...

Advanced Energy Management, Sensor, and Device Control with Tondo’s Cabinet IQ

In today's rapidly evolving urban landscape, the need for intelligent, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure is paramount. Tondo's Cabinet IQ emerges as a comprehensive energy management and infrastructure monitoring solution, designed to enhance the...

Lighting Controls Podcast #80: Smart Cities Can’t Operate Without AI

Webster Marsh of the Lighting Controls Podcast speaks with Marissa Wright, Chief Revenue Officer for Tondo Smart USA about Tondo, roadway lighting controls, and the implications of AI on managing complex lighting and smart city connected infrastructure....

Tondo’s SC220 Smart Controller Achieves Key Certification for North American Markets

We are thrilled to announce that Tondo’s latest innovation, the SC220 smart controller, has been awarded certification for North American deployment (link). With approvals from CSA/UL, FCC, CE, and RoHS, the SC220 is now ready to bring advanced, AI-powered lighting...

Tondo Awarded Patent for Decorative and Ornamental Fixture Smart Lighting Control

Seattle, Washington, September 12, 2024 – Tondo Smart USA Inc., a leader in smart lighting and smart city technologies, is proud to announce the granting of a patent (US Patent 12,098,831) for Tondo’s Edge IQ smart lighting wireless controller. This...

Simplifying Smart Lighting Installation: A Closer Look at Tondo’s Edge IQ Controller

The installation of the Edge IQ controller is designed to be straightforward, ensuring that even those with minimal technical experience can complete it efficiently.

Use Case: Streetlight Wire Theft Detection

“A report has been received regarding the theft of electrical infrastructure at a railway station in the southern part of the country. Two trenches were discovered from which communication cables buried in the ground were removed, totaling approximately 300 meters. This caused significant damage and has disrupted the signaling and traffic management systems of the railway in the southern region.”
— Israel Railways Spokesperson

Arava flood site of two deaths due to flash flood conditions.

Use Case: Driver Safety, Flash-Flood Detection, and Early Warning

“The implementation of Tondo’s smart port solution has revolutionized our operations at Piraeus Port. We now have real-time visibility into all port activities, from ship movements to utility consumption. The system has dramatically reduced our reliance on manual inspections, saving time and improving accuracy.”
— Nelly Tarnara, Public Sector Coordinator, Nea Polis

Use Case: Managing Energy Quality, Fault Detection, and Consumption

Use Case: Municipal Electricity Theft Detection

“With this project, we have gained the ability to remotely manage and control roadway lighting, enabling us to respond swiftly and efficiently to maintenance events. With Tondo’s AI technology, we can identify unexpected events such as electricity theft. As the amount of data increases, we expect to gain even more AI-based insights.”
— Dror Goslan, Director of Electrical and Lighting Systems Maintenance, Netivei Israel

Use Case: Streetlight Wire Theft Detection

Introduction

Wire theft, particularly involving copper from electrical infrastructure, is a costly and dangerous issue worldwide. This illegal activity not only leads to power outages and economic losses but also poses severe electrocution risks.

Utility companies suffer billions in annual losses due to cable theft, which impacts essential services and raises consumer costs. Despite various security measures, tracking stolen metals and apprehending thieves remains challenging. To address this issue, Tondo Smart Ltd. developed an AI-powered wire theft detection system, now deployed across Israel’s national transport infrastructure.

Challenges

Copper wire theft is driven by the high resale value of the metal, leading to frequent and costly thefts from electrical infrastructures. The consequences are severe, including power outages, service disruptions, and significant financial losses. For utility companies and infrastructure operators, traditional security measures often fall short in preventing or quickly detecting theft, making it a complex issue that requires innovative solutions.

Unfortunately, it is difficult for lighting operations teams to know the difference between a theft incident versus a fixture failure or a wiring fault.

The cost of repairing a single wire theft incident can range from $800 – $2,500 per pole, with a single theft event often involving multiple poles. Existing solutions can include welding access plates to poles, which is not only a costly process, but also inhibits future field service work that may require access to the pole.

Other solutions include replacing pole foundations with tamper-resistant plates, using tamper-proof screws, or replacing wiring infrastructure with copper-clad steel wiring. Some cities have begun replacing light poles that are at end-of-life with access plates placed higher on the pole. However, thieves have either found work-arounds for these solutions, or the implementation costs to cover all of the infrastructure become impractical. Replacing copper wire with copper-clad steel wire has found that thieves will steal the wire regardless, as the wire does not appear noticeably different.

“A report has been received regarding the theft of electrical infrastructure at a railway station in the southern part of the country. Two trenches were discovered from which communication cables buried in the ground were removed, totaling approximately 300 meters. This caused significant damage and has disrupted the signaling and traffic management systems of the railway in the southern region.”
Israel Railways Spokesperson

Damaged utility transformer pulled off pole

Solution Overview: Tondo Cloud IQ and Cabinet IQ Energy Analytics

Smart Hardware Integration: Tondo’s Cabinet IQ is installed at the utility service point. Tondo’s Cloud IQ AI provides immediate indications when a circuit is compromised.

AI-Based Detection: Cloud IQ collects data from Cabinet IQ, analyzing it through sophisticated AI algorithms to detect electricity and wire theft patterns based on the unique combination of .

Proactive Alerts and Deterrence: Upon detecting a potential theft, the system sends instant alerts to relevant managers and can control other devices such as triggering the flashing of lights to deter thieves. This allows lighting operations teams to quickly alert law enforcement to a theft-in-progress to provide deterrence for future re-occurrence.

A 2021 study of the Dallas police department showed that a 10% change in police presence has a 3% effect on deterrence. Where city operations teams and law enforcement are able to create a rapid-response protocol to respond to thefts-in-progress. With a consistent application of rapid-response to wire theft incidents, Tondo’s wire theft detection capabilities offer a new and inexpensive solution when compared to the high cost of replacing all of the wiring with low-copper wire ($200+ per pole), replacing foundation plates, or replacing entire poles.

The combined cost of Tondo’s smart lighting controls and energy analytics solution with wire theft detection capability can cost as little as $3.50 USD per pole while also providing long term energy savings, maintenance, and operational efficiency benefits.

Comprehensive Implementation: Deployed across Netivei Israel, this solution manages approximately 100,000 streetlights and 1,650 cabinet controllers along 5,000 miles of roadway.

Results

Significant Savings: The implementation of Tondo’s Cloud IQ and AI-powered theft detection system has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past year by preventing electricity theft, notwithstanding the 50%+ reduction in energy, maintenance, and operational expenses from Smart Lighting control.

Immediate Response: Cloud IQ’s real-time alerts allow lighting operations teams to work with local law enforcement to respond quickly to theft incidents, deterring future theft events and minimizing damage and service disruptions.

Enhanced Security: A flashing light deterrent solution Tondo created for their customers has proven effective in preventing theft attempts, contributing to overall infrastructure security.

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