ADVANCEMENTS IN LIGHTING STRATEGY AND TECHNOLOGY DISCUSSED AT THE 4TH ANNUAL MIDDLE EAST SMART LIGHTING AND ENERGY SUMMIT 2015

Over 400 attendees from across the GCC had gathered across two days to attend the 4th Annual Middle East Smart Lighting and Energy Summit 2015, held under the patronage of the Abu Dhabi City Municipality. H.E Eng. Zahra Al Aboudi, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Public Works inaugurated the summit along with Mohamed Ahmed Alameri, Director Infrastructure (North), Abu Dhabi City Municipality in the presence of esteemed dignitaries and Ambassadors from the Embassies of Canada, Kuwait, Netherlands, Chile and Angola to name a few. 

Lighting industry specialists demonstrated and revealed different applications, techniques, initiatives, challenges and opportunities impacting this domain. Eng. Hussein Mohsen Al Saeedi, Head of Sustainable Standards and Specifications Section, Infrastructure and Municipal Assets Sector, Abu Dhabi City Municipality presented the opening session that emphasized upon the city’s lighting strategy, the key aspects of the DMA lighting specifications along with a few project case studies of the new lighting specifications that have been applied at Sheikh Zayed street and tunnel and Abu Dhabi Island Sector E48 Commercial District. He also spoke of the new project undertaken at Khalifa City, making it currently the largest Abu Dhabi Municipality internal road project designed to the DMA lighting specifications.

Lighting expert Martin Valentine of Abu Dhabi City Municipality brought to the fore the future of lighting standards for Abu Dhabi. He laid particular emphasis on the energy savings that are now exceeding the original lighting strategy forecasts. During his presentation, he indicated that on an average around 80% energy savings are now being achieved. Additionally, he shared some insights into key aspects of the new draft of DMA lighting specifications.

Havells Sylvania’s Bastiaan de Groot delivered a presentation on launching applications for the digital lighting area. He discussed in detail the existing and upcoming digital lighting offers and also shared an outlook on where the lighting industry is headed. Indicating that several cities in the Middle East are leading the transformation towards sustainability, Philips’ Paolo Cervini during his session on Connected Lighting: Value beyond Illumination spoke on how a sustainable city supports environmentally-friendly mobility and leisure. 

The summit also featured presentations from other global industry experts such as Martin Klassen; Regina Santos, Dr. Martine Knoop of Technische Universität, Lichtvision Design’s Meike Göessling and VInayan Karunakaran of Parsons who spoke on topics pertaining to smart lighting design; LEED platinum case study; natural light architecture and brand new light respectively.

“We are extremely grateful to Abu Dhabi City Municipality for their continued support and patronage of our event. As the leading lighting summit in the industry, we ensure we provide our delegates an enriching experience by bringing together industry experts from across the globe to share their knowledge. The interest from all the stakeholders gets bigger every year and this year’s edition of the summit proved to be a resounding success.” said, Mr. Brad Hariharan, Regional Director, Expotrade Middle East.

The panel discussion on the first day moderated by David Andrew Dunn, Technical Delivery Manager – Utilities, Mouchel Consulting was on UAE making the best use of solar power in lighting to increase energy efficiency. He was supported by fellow panelists Aswathy Prasad of WSP Group; Elisa D’Emilio of Dorsch Consult and Faisal Rashid of Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.

At the close of the first day of the summit, Abu Dhabi City Municipality organized a lighting tour for the delegates that covered a few of the city’s iconic landmarks - Baynuna Street, Mushrif Park, Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Salam Street Tunnel, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Sheikh Zayed Street that were lit up in all its resplendent glory. The tour reiterated the city’s achievements in implementing smart lighting projects.

The second day of the summit kick started with Florence Lam, Global Lighting Design Leader, Arup discussing the need for prioritizing human centric night-time design in urban development. Her session included a case study and research work which explored the notion towards the 24 hour city and illustrated the key role that night-time lighting play in augmenting cultural experiences, encouraging social interaction and contributing to cities’ night-time economy.  

The second day’s panel discussion had four industry leaders delve deep into a discussion on the future innovations and techniques impacting the lighting industry. The discussion was moderated by lighting expert Martin Valentine and he was accompanied by international lighting designers Martin Klassen, Florence Lam and Regina Santos. At the end of the 40 minute panel discussion, the attendees were curious to know more and asked a number of questions to the panelists on the stage.

Over 25 renowned companies including Havells Sylvania, Yaming, Metrosmart International, Philips, Valmont France, Fagerhult Lighting Group, amongst others showcased their technological innovations and solutions at the exhibitor lounge.

Speakers, sponsors and delegates commended the summit for its strong educational component. Hassan Habib, Roads Design Section Head, Department of Municipal Affairs - Western Region Municipality, commented, “The summit covered a lot of grounds on the smart lighting and sustainability of the new technology accomplished in the recent years. The topics were very beneficial and unique reflecting excellent vision on the actuality of each project illustrated during the two day summit. Many Thanks for offering us this great opportunity to meet other industry peers and know more about new technologies and ideas.”

Arvind Rathore, Senior Electrical Engineer, CH2M Hill, said, “To attend the 4th Annual Middle East Smart Lighting & Energy Summit 2015 was a very good learning experience for me. It was great to know about the developments and features pertaining to smart LED lighting and its contribution towards energy saving.” 

Gopakumar Pillai, Senior Manager Facilities Management, Residential Properties Department, Asset Management, Dubai Properties, said, “Thank you for organizing a great summit and I really appreciated the topics and presentations that was very informative.  As a Senior FM and Energy professional, this summit not only got me thinking of new possibilities in future lighting but also raised my level of information for soliciting work for my current projects.”

Commenting on the success of the summit lighting expert, Martin Valentine, said, “It was a wonderful event, with a good line-up of speakers and the response from delegates and supporters was phenomenal. I am very happy to have been involved throughout and enjoyed every second.”