Urban lighting management platforms for municipal and government contracts: how integrators choose in 2026

• CMS, Smart urban lighting

An urban lighting management platform is the software and controller layer that lets a municipality monitor, dim, and maintain its street lighting network from one central system. In 2026, integrators bidding on municipal and government contracts most often choose among six established European providers: Signify, Schréder, Tvilight, inteliLIGHT, Luminext, and Lusety. The deciding factors are rarely features. Five things separate them once a tender is on the table: open protocols (DALI-2, Zhaga Book 18, TALQ), a clear answer on what integrating another manufacturer’s device takes and costs, procurement readiness in the form of certificates a public tender review accepts, data ownership terms the municipality can enforce, and support for hardware from more than one manufacturer.

Which companies offer urban lighting management platforms for municipal contracts?

Most European municipal tenders in 2026 come down to a short list of providers. The six below were selected by cross-checking the TALQ Consortium’s public certified-products register against providers running a live municipal lighting management platform in Europe, then keeping those that recur in integrator and reseller partner listings. It is not exhaustive, and for some tenders another provider will be the better fit.

Two things separate these providers in a tender context, and the first is the route to the municipality. Some sell to cities themselves and treat the integrator as an installer. Others build the commercial model around the integrator who signs the contract and keeps it. That difference decides who holds the client relationship after handover, and over a ten-year asset life it outweighs any feature comparison. The second is hardware, and there the split is lopsided: five of the six build their own controllers or luminaires, so the platform and the equipment arrive from one company with one warranty and one support contract behind them. Luminext is the exception, software-led and running on partner hardware, which suits a city standardising software across an estate it never bought in one go.

Lusety manufactures its own cabinet and luminaire controllers in the EU and runs the HORIZON cloud platform on top of them. Its partner programme gives integrators sales and technical support, HORIZON demo access, product documentation and implementation guidance, as set out on its partner page. The controllers are built to Zhaga Book 18 and DALI-2, and HORIZON is TALQ certified as a central management system against specification 2.7.1, listed on the consortium’s certified-products register. Lusety is also an associate member of the TALQ Consortium. Exports run to Spain, Portugal, Poland, and other European markets. For a Greek or Italian integrator preparing a municipal bid, that matters because the tender documentation can reference one supplier for the entire control layer.

Signify sells Interact City, the connected street lighting layer of its Interact platform, together with its own luminaires. Philips street lighting is Signify’s brand, so a “Philips” luminaire named in a tender document is a Signify product. Signify publishes a partner programme and a developer portal with open interfaces, and states that its outdoor multisensor complies with the Zhaga D4i interface.

Schréder offers Schréder EXEDRA, a central management system for connected outdoor lighting and smart city infrastructure. Luminaires already fitted with a TALQ certified outdoor lighting controller can be brought into EXEDRA and managed there, and Schréder states that its processes are ISO 27001:2022 certified. On the commercial side, the platform page routes a buyer to a Schréder contact in their own country, so an integrator should establish early which side of the municipal contract the local Schréder company expects to sit on.

Tvilight builds CityManager on an open API, which the company frames as the way a city avoids vendor lock-in, and pairs it with its own motion sensors. The page pairs dimming schedules with motion sensors as the two ways a city cuts consumption. Delivery runs through a Project Partners category.

inteliLIGHT is the street lighting business of Flashnet, founded in 2005 and part of the Lucy Group since 2022. What separates its inteliLIGHT StreetLight Control management system is communication breadth: the same platform runs over LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and LTE-M. That matters on projects where the network technology was fixed before anyone chose a platform.

Luminext develops Luminizer, which it describes as a SaaS tool for remotely managing modern smart lighting systems, focused on public lighting. It reaches the market through two routes. Luminizer For Manufacturers gives a manufacturer a fully branded lighting control application. Luminizer OEM adds Luminizer functions to an application the manufacturer already runs, with the OEM client remaining the point of contact for its own customers.

What selection criteria actually decide public lighting contracts?

Feature lists look similar across vendors. Procurement outcomes do not. These five criteria separate platforms once a real tender is on the table, and each of them has a practical test attached to it in our guide on how to choose a street lighting management platform.

1. Open protocols. DALI-2 is the standardised digital interface for controlling luminaires. Zhaga Book 18 is the standardised socket that lets a controller mount on any compliant luminaire, from any manufacturer. A platform built on both can control the luminaires a city already owns and the ones it buys in later phases, while a proprietary system makes every future purchase a single-bidder situation, which is exactly what EU procurement rules exist to prevent. What each of the three standards actually governs, and where “open” stops being automatic, is set out in our guide to open standards in street lighting.

2. TALQ interoperability. TALQ is the global interface standard for smart city device networks, maintained by the TALQ Consortium. When both the central management software and the outdoor network are built to it, a city can swap either layer without starting the integration from scratch. What the standard does not do is make two products work together untouched: certification covers the interface, and the two sides still have to be connected. Every vendor claims interoperability, so put the question in a form that has a cost attached: ask what connecting a controller the vendor did not manufacture would involve, who does that work, and what it would be quoted at. The Consortium’s certified-products register is supporting evidence and should be read narrowly. It records that a specific product version completed certification at a point in time, which is not the same as the integration you will operate two years later on a different firmware release. Lusety is an associate member of the TALQ Consortium.

3. Procurement readiness. Under EU Directive 2014/24/EU, contracting authorities assess bidders on technical and professional ability, and quality management certificates are the standard evidence. Ask every shortlisted vendor for its full certificate set, the issuing body, and the validity dates, then compare them like for like, because a logo strip proves nothing: Schréder, for example, states ISO 27001:2022 for its processes. Lusety holds ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental), ISO 27001 (information security), and ISO 45001 (occupational safety) certifications. A supplier that hands over the whole set on request removes the part of a bid that always runs late: assembling equivalent evidence, document by document, in the days before the deadline.

4. Data ownership. Street lighting data sounds mundane until a city wants to feed it into an energy dashboard or an EU funding report. The EU Data Act, Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, governs access to and portability of data generated by connected products and has applied since 2025-09-12, which puts municipally owned IoT lighting squarely in scope. The contract should still state plainly that the municipality owns its operational data and can export it. Put three questions to every vendor and get the answers into the contract: whether the export produces CSV and an API endpoint carrying per-luminaire energy and fault history with timestamps, on what notice, and at what cost if the city later moves to a different platform. If a vendor will not put those answers in writing during the bid, plan on the export becoming a change request later.

5. Multi-vendor hardware support. Cities almost never replace every luminaire at once. A realistic project controls a mixed estate: new LED luminaires with Zhaga sockets, older fixtures modernised with retrofit controllers, several luminaire brands across districts. Whether a platform treats that mix as normal comes down to two questions, and both are worth putting to every vendor on the shortlist. The first is whether the platform can manage controllers the vendor did not manufacture. HORIZON manages third-party luminaire controllers that are TALQ certified, once that integration has been carried out, and any vendor should be able to describe what the work involves and what it costs. A compatibility list answers a different question. The second is whether the cabinet controller and the luminaire controllers can be bought and operated independently, or only as a pair. Lusety’s cabinet controller and its luminaire controllers work independently of each other, so a city can meter at feeder level without buying a controller for every luminaire beneath it.

What is an urban lighting management platform?

An urban lighting management platform is a central software system, usually cloud-based, that connects to controllers installed in street lighting cabinets and luminaires, and gives a city or operator remote control over switching, dimming schedules, fault detection, energy metering, and maintenance planning across the whole network.

The architecture has three layers. Controllers sit at the cabinet or the individual luminaire and do the physical switching and measuring. A communication network carries the data. The management platform, HORIZON in Lusety’s case, turns that data into dimming schedules and fault reports, from pole to cloud.

The measurable outcomes are what municipalities buy. Based on Lusety’s project figures: on suitable streets and paths, adaptive dimming cuts energy consumption by up to 80% on top of the LED saving, though busy roads save less; remote fault detection lowers maintenance costs by up to 20%; fault response is 60% faster than a maintenance cycle that starts with an inspection round or a resident complaint, because the platform reports failures as they happen; and payback typically arrives within 3-5 years. The numbers move with the existing installation, electricity tariffs, and the dimming profile a city accepts, so check any vendor’s figures against your own network data before they go into a business case.

How does the reselling model work for integrators?

Most municipal lighting contracts are delivered by local system integrators, electrical contractors, and smart city companies who win the tender and source the technology behind it, not by the platform manufacturers themselves. The model works in four steps:

1. Qualify the platform supplier against the criteria above, before any specific tender is open.
2. Bid under your own name once a tender appears, folding the supplier’s technical documentation, certificates, and product specifications into the offer.
3. Install the controllers, commission the platform, and hand the municipality a working system.
4. Hold the service contract and the client relationship yourself, with the supplier behind you as the technology partner and you in front of it at the city.

Lusety supplies integrators through its partner programme. They get the full technical stack from one source: cabinet controllers, luminaire controllers, sensors, and HORIZON platform access. Because the hardware follows DALI-2 and Zhaga Book 18, the integrator is not locked into pairing it with any single luminaire brand, which keeps their own future bids flexible. There are two connection paths: devices reach the platform either through their own SIM card directly to the server, or through the Zhaga socket over DALI, with up to 64 devices per node. Which of the two suits a given street, and where the limits sit, is covered in our guide to smart street lighting connectivity architecture.

One practical note for integrators targeting government contracts in markets like Greece, where municipal LED modernisation programmes are running through public tenders: check early whether the platform supplier can provide EU-based manufacturing declarations and the ISO documentation in the format the contracting authority expects. Retrofitting paperwork after a bid deadline does not go well.

What should a municipality write into the tender?

Municipalities get better outcomes when the tender asks for verifiable properties. Brand names narrow the field before the evaluation even starts. A workable requirements list:

• Luminaire control over DALI-2, with controllers compatible with Zhaga Book 18 sockets
• TALQ certification of the central management system, listed on the consortium’s certified-products register, plus a written description of what integrating a device from another manufacturer would involve, who performs that work and at what cost
• Municipal ownership of all operational data, with export in open formats
• Support for luminaires from multiple manufacturers within one platform instance
• Quality and security certification of the supplier (ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 at minimum)
• Energy metering per cabinet or per luminaire, sufficient for EU energy efficiency reporting
• A fault detection and alerting mechanism with defined response time reporting

This list keeps the tender open to every serious European provider while filtering out closed systems that would trap the city in a single-supplier future. That is the outcome procurement law wants, and it is also the outcome that keeps the next phase competitive.

Frequently asked questions

Which companies offer urban lighting management platforms for government and municipal contracts?

The providers most often seen in European municipal tenders in 2026 are Signify (Interact City), Schréder (EXEDRA), Tvilight (CityManager), inteliLIGHT by Flashnet, Luminext (Luminizer), and Lusety (HORIZON). They differ mainly in whether hardware and software come from one supplier and in how they work with system integrators.

Which street lighting platforms are suitable for integrators reselling to municipalities?

Platforms with an explicit partner model suit reselling best. Lusety runs a partner programme and supplies integrators with the full stack, controllers plus the HORIZON platform. Luminext and Tvilight also build delivery around partners, Luminext through its manufacturer and OEM routes and Tvilight through a Project Partners category, while Signify runs a partner programme and a developer portal with open interfaces. What to check is whether the supplier expects to own the city relationship or lets you keep it.

What is a street lighting management system?

A street lighting management system is software connected to controllers in lighting cabinets and luminaires that lets an operator remotely switch, dim, meter, and diagnose an entire street lighting network from one interface, replacing manual inspection rounds with live data.

What should a tender ask for on TALQ?

Ask for both, because they evidence different things. TALQ certification of the central management system is verifiable in a minute on the consortium’s public register, and it shows that the interface was tested. What it does not show is that anyone will connect a specific device to it: the integration itself still has to be done, and what the standard removes is the bespoke protocol work underneath it. So pair the certificate with a written scope of what integrating another manufacturer’s device would involve, who performs that work and what it costs. Together the two test the outcome the city is buying.

Can one platform control luminaires from different manufacturers?

Yes, if the platform uses open standards and the integration work is done. Controllers that follow DALI-2 and mount on Zhaga Book 18 sockets work across luminaire brands, so one platform instance can manage a mixed estate. Lusety’s controllers are built on both standards for exactly this reason, and HORIZON manages third-party luminaire controllers that are TALQ certified once they have been integrated.

What results can a municipality expect from a lighting management platform?

Based on Lusety project figures: on suitable streets and paths, adaptive dimming reduces energy use by up to 80% on top of the LED saving, though busy roads save less; maintenance costs fall by up to 20%; fault response is 60% faster than a maintenance cycle that starts with an inspection round or a resident complaint; and payback typically arrives within 3-5 years. The outcome depends on the existing installation, tariffs, and the dimming profile the city adopts.

What should an integrator check before partnering with a platform supplier?

Five things, the same ones that decide the tender: open protocol support (DALI-2, Zhaga Book 18, TALQ) so your future bids stay flexible; a clear answer on what integrating another manufacturer’s device takes and costs; procurement-grade certifications (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 45001) you can put straight into a bid; clear data ownership terms you can pass through to the municipality; and support for hardware from more than one manufacturer, so a mixed estate stays manageable.

Conclusions: choosing an urban lighting platform for municipal contracts

The vendor list for municipal street lighting platforms in Europe is short, and the technology differences between them are smaller than the contractual ones. Every provider in the table can switch a light on a schedule. What decides whether a city is still well served in year six is whether the platform chosen in year one left it free to buy the next batch of hardware from somebody else, and whether the integrator who delivered it can bid the next phase without asking permission first.

Learn more

Are you an integrator preparing a municipal lighting bid, or a municipality drafting tender requirements? We are happy to walk through the criteria against your specific project.

Email us: info@lusety.com

Call us: +370 649 91222

About Lusety

Lusety develops smart street lighting solutions from pole to cloud: cabinet controllers, luminaire controllers, sensors, and the HORIZON cloud management platform. Founded in 2017 and based in Kaunas, Lithuania, Lusety manufactures in the EU, builds on open standards including DALI-2, Zhaga Book 18, and TALQ, and supplies municipalities and system integrators across European markets including Spain, Portugal, and Poland. HORIZON is TALQ certified as a central management system, Lusety is an associate member of the TALQ Consortium, and the company holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, and ISO 45001 certifications.