1. Introduction
The issue of energy saving is nowadays an important topic and
one answer, in this field, could be given by minor waste in the illumination
system. Many approaches can be used to this aim as
demonstrated in literature. Among these the replacement of a
magnetic power supply with electronic ones is a valid solution.
The electronic power supply, an electronic ballast, has a efficiency
of about 90%; it is also characterized by other advantages such as
the stabilization of input voltage, the increase of the life time of
the lamps, and a better power factor control, of about 99% that allows
one to see a resistive load through the power line. However
these advantages are offered by almost all ballast manufacturers.
Our answer to ballast commercial competition is a cost effective
remote street lighting monitoring and control system that utilizes
power lines (PLM/PLC – Power Line Modulation/Power Line Communication)
as transmission. It has not only a wide range of energy
and maintenance saving features, but it is also a sufficiently low
cost product in a commercially compelling proposition. This consists
in the dimming of night illumination at certain times during
the night when full power is not required, so producing minor
waste.
From the industrial point of view, a reliability analysis to estimate
the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of the system is necessary
to evaluate the reliability performance of the device [1–3].
Since the reliability prediction we recommended to perform a life
test on the electronic ballast. The whole test plan has been characterized
and some results are reported in the paper.