Plextek spins out Telensa street lighting venture

Led by Tim Jackson and Will Gibson, Telensa develops and markets its economical PLANet system, actively targeting local authorities and electrical/construction sub contractors who manage street lighting for councils. Colin Smithers, Managing Director, Plextek comments: “Plextek has a proven track record of incubating entrepreneurial ideas into successful businesses. For the last few years the Telensa team has benefited from our financial backing, advice and resources, and is now in a position to move forward as an independent company. The increasing focus on energy efficiency means that the market for Telensa’s PLANet system is growing rapidly. As a result of its great technology I firmly believe Telensa is well placed to achieve major success, both in the UK and internationally.”

Telensa’s PLANet system is the first of its kind, providing flexible control, monitoring and full energy measurement, suitable for a wide range of existing and new street lighting. Telensa’s system makes innovative use of Plextek’s proven Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) wireless telemetry technology, which has been very successfully deployed, in applications such as stolen vehicle recovery and smart metering, with several million UNB based units in operation around the world.

“Telensa is addressing the needs of the street lighting industry in terms of functionality, reliability and cost-effectiveness,” said Will Gibson, co-founder of Telensa. “The PLANet system offers local authorities a cost effective solution helping to protect against the rising and increasingly uncertain costs in street lighting provision. It enables the effective management of operations, maintenance and energy consumption across a whole street lighting population.”