July 3, 2012 – A pilot project between Toshiba International Corp. and the City of Stratford, Ont., will evaluate replacing existing streetlights (potentially as many as 4,000 units) with energy-efficient Toshiba LED fixtures and assist with the city’s smart community initiatives.

As a result of installing the innovative fixtures, Stratford stands to save up to 30% in energy consumption for street lighting, as compared to their currently installed conventional HID luminaries, it claims.

The pilot project also involves Toshiba working with the city to test communications-enabled fixtures that tie into the city’s smart grid network.

“Our relationship with the City of Stratford is a step forward in realizing our vision, as we work together to develop integrated solutions that save energy, reduce carbon, lower costs and realize the greatest flexibility in lighting systems for municipalities and DOTs across North America,” said Ken Honeycutt, senior vice president at Toshiba and chief venture executive for Toshiba LED Lighting Systems Division.

Famous for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the city of approximately 32,000 residents owns a 70-km network of optical fiber weaving throughout the city with an integrated 802.11n wireless mesh network spanning the entire city.

The city recently earned the title of “Top Seven Intelligent Community for 2012” by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a New York-based think tank dedicated to studying the use of information and communications technology to create the community of the 21st century. Stratford, along with six other communities, was honoured at ICF’s annual Building The Broadband Economy summit conference in New York City, N.Y., which ran from  June 6-8, 2012.