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Hera Luce is the public lighting company of the Hera Group. It designs, builds, maintains and operates public lighting systems, creating safety for the local area and projecting it towards the future, using cutting-edge technology. Over its 19 years, Hera Luce has gained experience not only in public lighting and traffic light systems, but also in the field of artistic lighting. The company is 100% owned by AcegasApsAmga.
 



As the operator of more than 180 municipalities in Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo, and Lazio, for a total of more than 500,000 light points, it is the second-largest Italian public lighting company. Thanks to its know-how, it is a partner of public administrations and provides tailor-made projects, which it also offers through project financing. Hera Luce implements the concept of circular economy and Hera Group's sustainability in projects designed to achieve the highest possible energy efficiency, reduce light pollution and the improve the circularity of all the components of the public lighting system. Moreover, it is active in developing solutions that support circular smart cities, by developing sensors for intelligent traffic management and advanced networks (Wi-Fi, video surveillance or Internet of things - IoT networks).

Hera Luce's lighting management benefits urban quality, citizen safety, road safety, energy management and environmental sustainability. Designing upgrades for lighting systems, in fact, always involves working hand in hand with the Public Administrations, and is tailored to the needs of the local area in order to implement an innovative model, in which the management of public lighting is geared towards the development of communities that are more sustainable and open to new technologies.

 

Services
 

Upgrading: efficient lighting for the circular economy

Hera Luce's work to safeguard the starry sky goes beyond the requirements of regional laws and is based on a careful analysis of the local area and the optical properties of the luminaries. The company handles projects for energy upgrading and compliance with public lighting regulations, characterized by high standards of energy efficiency and low environmental impact, also by using LED (light emitting diode) technology. Hera Luce has signed an agreement, the first of its kind in Italy, with the Unione Astrofili Italiana (UAI) and with the Italian Section of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), designed to reduce light pollution and optimize the energy efficiency of lighting solutions.

Hera Luce's concern for environmental sustainability is reflected in the design of systems that consist of 99% recoverable materials and the analysis of light levels and orientation, in order to minimize light pollution by reducing as much as possible the flow of light scattered to the sky. The sensor system also enables the design of adaptive lighting systems that adjust the brightness as vehicles or people pass by, thus saving a great deal of energy.

Management: timeliness and efficiency
Hera Luce, through an innovative remote management system, controls each light point and immediately activates the servicing, support and maintenance services if malfunctions occur.

Artistic lighting: new life for our favourite places
Working closely with the Superintendencies and the best professionals in the field of city décor, Hera Luce is in charge of artistic lighting projects that enhance the city centres of villages and cities, as well as historical-architectural places.

Traffic lights
Hera Luce contributes to the safety and quality of life in cities by implementing and managing traffic control systems and using an innovative methodology capable of processing large amounts of data, to provide an intelligent contribution to traffic flow planning, equipped with predictive functions.

Traffic violation detection
Hera Luce designs and develops advanced solutions for city safety, including the detection of traffic offences to support law enforcement. The systems designed by Hera Luce provide computerised and automatic management, active 365 days a year 24 hours a day.

Devices for the visually impaired
A distinguishing feature of Hera Luce is the installation of new-generation acoustic devices for the visually impaired, combined with the latest generation of traffic lights, to enable all citizens to fully experience the city.

Video surveillance
Not only cameras, but also access control systems, CCTV equipment and video analysis technologies. A revolutionary metadata engine integrates data from multiple sources, transforming it into useful information to support strategic choices for smart cities.

Public Wi-Fi networks
Leveraging the public lighting infrastructure and its know-how in data network management, Hera Luce, in collaboration with Acantho, Hera Group' s telecommunications company, can develop any type of Wi-Fi network to cover city centres.

Networks to serve smart cities
Hera Luce is the ideal partner for managing and developing networks for the transmission of big data, veritable enabling infrastructures for building increasingly intelligent and adaptive cities. The know-how recently acquired by the Hera Group in the development of the new LoRaWan technology is particularly noteworthy. It is one of the most promising solutions for long-distance data transmission with low energy consumption and is therefore particularly suitable for managing IoT (Internet of Things) solutions, as an alternative to the more expensive 4G-5G networks.

Hera Luce's efforts to improve the efficiency of public lighting contribute to achieving target 7.3 of the UN's 2030 Agenda.

Go to the HERA LUCE website

Acantho, a telecommunications operator, is the digital company of the Hera Group. More than fifteen years ago it undertook the development of a proprietary ultra broadband fibre optic network. Serving the main cities of Emilia-Romagna, the network now extends for 4,200 km (2,100 of which are on the city' s network) and, thanks to its integration with the main national and international operators, provides complete coverage of the local area. 


Why choose Acantho? 
Because it provides companies and individuals with high-performance connectivity, telephony and data centre services, high reliability, maximum system security, data and service continuity. This is thanks to its data centres, one based in Imola and one in Milan. Acantho's goal is as simple as it is ambitious: to be a company active in building the future in its local area, by innovating and enhancing the entrepreneurial fabric. How? By offering innovative services and tools that can help small and large companies become increasingly competitive.

Technology and innovation as competitive levers at the service of companies. Acantho's mission is to help companies achieve excellent results in their business. And to do this it presents itself as a competent, reliable and professional technology partner, providing its customers with state-of-the-art ICT services. At the base of all its services is its 100% proprietary fibre optic network, with which businesses, institutions and families in the area are connected. Owning the network, together with the two Acantho Data Centres, represents the strength of a partner capable of providing high levels of performance and security for all the services it offers. The company's key values: territoriality, flexibility, transparency, sustainability and innovation.
 

Highlights

 

Services
 

  • connectivity services up to ten gigabits per second; 
  • virtual private network services;
  • voice and virtual switchboard services; 
  • video presence services; 
  • video analysis and video surveillance services; 
  • data centre services (housing, virtual server, virtual data centre, storage and backup, business continuity and disaster recovery). 

Together with Hera Group, Acantho also offers services for local smart cities, such as public Wi-Fi services, smart security systems and digital signage. 

 

Innovation and sustainability
 

Innovative projects of the Group in which Acantho contributed to the digitalization:

  • cassONetto Smarty
  • PUNTOnet
  • Smart Metering and Smart Grid
  • Queue Management (HeraComm's branches)
  • Hera Meal Vouchers Management
  • Hera physical security and building automation

Specifically, for business customers, the connectivity services offered are based on fibre optic technologies, radio links and copper. The objective for the future is precisely to increase the number of customers connected to optical fibre - with respect to copper technologies - also thanks to integration with other operators.

In fact, optical fibre has a lower impact from a social and environmental point of view, compared to the copper network. Copper is a rare resource, mined in countries where working conditions in the mining sector are not optimal. In addition, optical fibre is less polluting than the copper network. Optical fibres, being only slightly thicker than a human hair, are also easier and cheaper to transport, require less conduit space and are easier to install. From an energy point of view, an optical fibre network uses much less energy than copper, the ratio is approximately 1 to 10. The service life of optical fibre is also longer (more than 30 years) while copper cabling is subject to corrosion, short-circuiting and other problems that can shorten its service life. 

Acantho-Open Fiber broadband extension agreement 
In 2019, Acantho signed an agreement with Open Fiber to extend broadband, increasing its geographical boundaries and ensuring greater coverage with respect to users reachable by fibre. 

Acantho supported the Open Fiber network development roadmap by granting the rights to use its optical fibre for a total of about 500 km in the provinces of Modena, Bologna, Ravenna, Rimini and Forlì-Cesena. 

For the city of Imola, Acantho provided Open Fiber with an 18 km fibre optic ring which is the primary network for the city. 

The Acantho-Open Fiber broadband extension agreement contributes to achieving targets 9.1, 9.2, 9.4, and 17.17 of the UN's 2030 Agenda.

Go to ACANTHO website

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