H.E. Dr. Abdulla Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister, Ministry of Infrastructure Development delivering the welcome address at the Middle East Smart Lighting and Energy Summit 2016

Sustainable Lighting Techniques Discussed at the Middle East Smart Lighting and Energy Summit

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

H.E. Dr. Abdulla Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister, Ministry of Infrastructure Development inaugurated the fifth edition of the Middle East Smart Lighting and Energy Summit on Monday, 26^th September and also delivered the welcome address in the presence of other VIPs.

Eng. Sami Abdul Qader Al Hashmi, Director of the Infrastructure Support Division, Abu Dhabi City Municipality opened the summit. In his opening remarks, he spoke of Abu Dhabi City Municipality’s resolve in maintaining sustainable and quality standards for lighting and the award-winning changes that have been made to all aspects of public lighting design and project delivery. His session was followed by a presentation on the lighting strategy of the Abu Dhabi City Municipality by Eng. Hussein Mohsen Al Saeedi of Abu Dhabi City Municipality.

Rami Hajjar of Philips spoke at length on the implementation of LED smart city lighting systems and empowering smart cities with connected lighting, post which Etihad ESCO’s Stephane Le Gentil delivered a presentation that provided insight on how lighting retrofit projects generate huge savings, significantly improve the light quality and are relatively simple to execute with almost zero maintenance.

Paul Nulty delivered a session focused on the quality of light in a topic titled Low Energy. High Quality. Throughout the presentation, he spoke of how the smartest of lighting schemes are well considered and well designed, and are not necessarily product lead. Martin Valentine’s open discussion session saw a number of delegates asking pertinent questions on the new DMAT Lighting Manual’s standards/requirements and new project/fixture performance requirements.

The second day began with a session by Bulent Narbay of Abu Dhabi City Municipality on Abu Dhabi’s unification of design guidelines, standards & specifications, following which Joanna Stevens of Mott MacDonald presented on the importance of lighting in sustainable design. She described how lighting can impact our health and wellbeing and provided an overview of sustainability context and regulation, discussing sustainable lighting design principles.

Abu Dhabi Quality & Conformity Council’s Dr. Simon Hugh Miller spoke on exterior LED luminaire performance in UAE conditions. The presentation provided both a benchmark for manufacturers to gauge their own product’s performance against and direction for Gulf specification bodies when setting quality standards.

The summit ended with a panel discussion on daylight architecture - a leading concept in the new era of lighting. Four lighting experts Joanne Robinson, Principal Consultant – Sustainable Resource Management, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff; Michel Francis, Chief Architect, DEC; Nathan Cartwright, Partner, Godwin Austen Johnson; Paul Miles, Principal Lighting Designer & Partner, LightTouch PLD participated in an interactive discussion that included the benefits of daylight architecture, namely cost effectiveness, health benefits, substantial energy savings and increased efficiency with natural light.

Across two days, leading lighting manufacturers Philips, Bajaj Electrical, Façade Lighting, LCT-light stone, Telensa, ACS Wireless, Groupe Vincentz International among others displayed their marquee solutions at the Smart Lighting lounge at the summit.

Sharing positive feedback at the close of the summit, Vyasan Bhaskar of Bajaj Electricals said, “It is a very well-coordinated event. It gave us an opportunity to interact on a one-on-one basis with several key personalities from the industry as well as from the Abu Dhabi City Municipality. Additionally, the topics covered at the event was very informative.”

Mohammed Al Malzki, Chief Engineer, Abu Dhabi City Municipality, said, “It is a well-organized summit with a comprehensive and diverse agenda and a good representation of speakers.”