During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Gansu Provincial Highway Transportation Construction Group Co., Ltd. in China has been advancing its innovation-driven development strategy. Its subsidiary, Jiaoshe Co., Ltd. Langqing Company, in collaboration with Pengda Project Company, jointly developed a vehicle-following lighting control system for highway tunnels aimed at low-carbon transportation.

This system addresses issues such as high energy consumption caused by the traditional "constant high brightness" in tunnel lighting and significant safety hazards from the "black hole/white hole" effect. By adding equipment like edge control hosts, IoT gateways, and controllers, and combining environmental and vehicle detection data, it enables operation in different modes. When the average daily traffic volume is below 5,000 vehicles, the vehicle-following lighting mode is activated, achieving "lights turn on when vehicles arrive, and dim when they leave"; when traffic exceeds 5,000 vehicles, it switches to an adaptive lighting mode, automatically adjusting brightness based on weather conditions and the luminance difference between the inside and outside of the tunnel.

In terms of technological innovation, a dynamic dimming control strategy based on vehicle speed is proposed, matching lighting duration and distance according to three speed bands: low, medium, and high. In multi-vehicle scenarios, safety redundancy is ensured by using the highest vehicle speed as the benchmark. The system employs a LoRa+Mesh wireless ad hoc network, where controllers enable multi-node relay communication, so a single point of failure does not affect system communication. Additionally, the system automatically compares preset thresholds to adjust lighting based on day/night cycles, weather changes, and luminance differences between inside and outside the tunnel. Regarding mode innovation, the project explores an Energy Performance Contracting model, where the implementer bears the initial investment and recovers costs through a share of the energy savings.

This achievement has formed a complete industrial chain encompassing "R&D – Production – Sales – Operation and Maintenance," driving the collaborative development of three upstream and downstream enterprises, including PCB manufacturing and electromechanical installation. It has been successfully implemented in multiple projects, such as Dinglin, Zhuohe, Kanglüe, Wuxian, and Dunda, covering a cumulative tunnel length exceeding 100 kilometers, with comprehensive energy savings reaching 50% to 65%. In the Dinglin project, which has low traffic volume, the system typically operates in vehicle-following lighting mode, achieving a comprehensive energy saving rate of 70%. Calculated at an industrial electricity rate of 0.7 yuan/kWh, this saved approximately 1.7113 million yuan in power costs compared to full-power operation. In the Pengda project, which has high traffic volume, the system normally runs in adaptive lighting mode, resulting in a comprehensive energy save rate of 16% and annual electricity cost savings of 124,700 yuan compared to full-power operation.

The system has been granted one invention patent, one utility model patent, and was selected as a "2025 Digital Transportation Typical Case." Following surveys and research, the Longnan Branch has identified approximately 134.197 kilometers of tunnels requiring lighting upgrades, with an estimated market size of about 22 million yuan, and a retrofit pilot project was already conducted over an 8.4-kilometer section; the tunnels managed by the Dingxi Branch requiring such upgrades total approximately 42.305 kilometers, with an estimated market size of about 9.10321 million yuan.