With New York experiencing dangerous air quality this week due to Canadian wildfires, the city of Schenectady says it's using new technology to monitor local levels.
Last year, Smart City sensors were installed in streetlights. They monitor several environmental data points, including air quality. In an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, the city of Schenectady partnered with National Grid to pilot a Reforming the Energy Vision, or REV, demonstration project to replace 4,200 streetlights with LEDs throughout the city. It’s part of former Governor Cuomo’s New York State Energy Plan, which aims to develop new energy products and services to help customers make more informed choices, create jobs, and protect the environment.
During the pilot, the city is using six streetlights to house Smart City technologies and services using connected devices and a low bandwidth wireless network. In additional to environmental information, Mayor Gary McCarthy says the sensors can detect outage and create dimming schedules during off-peak hours to reduce energy consumption.
“Some of these have optical sensors,” said McCarthy. “There’s a mesh network that monitors the lights being on and off.”
John Coluccio, the city’s signal superintendent, says the eerie hazy skies are an opportunity to put the new system to use.
“We’re going to continue to monitor this on a daily basis and be able to provide feedback to our residents to show them when the air is healthy and unhealthy so that they can take proper precautions,” said Coluccio.
McCarthy, a Democrat, says the sensors are giving the city important local data that national services like airnow.gov or the National Weather Service can’t.
“They have a good what I’ll call ‘regional message’ that can go out,” said McCarthy. “This allows us to monitor on a very local level.”
Outside of informing residents, McCarthy says the data can provide information to hospitals or municipal programs for planning purposes in unusual situations like this.
“Our goal is to generally make it available of course to residents within the city of Schenectady and our partners who may have a need for information that we haven’t had before,” said McCarthy.
The data maps are not yet available to the public, but McCarthy says they could be later this year.
“There’s a lot of information here and it’s exciting to look at it but at the same time we’re trying to get it reduced down so that it’s practical and doesn’t overwhelm people,” said McCarthy.
This technology is not just being used for air quality; McCarthy says the city has been able to use the smart sensors’ data in the winter to determine a plan of action.
"We monitor it at closer levels where you worry about freezing so ‘Is the street freezing? Is it going to be snow or rain?’ So, if it’s slightly above freezing, it would be dependent on whether or not we would put snowplows out or salt or sand the streets,” said McCarthy. “If it goes below freezing, then you have more specific information to neighborhoods and you can better manage whatever’s happening.”
Shannon DuJack is the associate nurse manager in the Ellis Hospital emergency department. She recommends people keep an eye on symptoms that may arise to due air quality levels.
“We’re just recommending people that are experiencing mild symptoms, dry, itchy eyes, dry, scratchy throat to call their primary care doctor or go to one of the urgent cares in the area,” said DuJack.
New York state is distributing masks that can be used to protect against this type of pollution. Health officials say when the air quality is poor, people with lung and heart problems should stay inside and avoid strenuous activity.
