How to Maintain the Street Lights

A city must be prepared to take all the measures to create a lively, safe and sustainable spaces. Besides procurement of new products and initiating new projects to make the city better it is equally important to have a maintenance plan in place. The maintenance plan will ensure that the right actions are taken in a timely manner. A maintenance plan is also essential in ensuring the sustenance and long term success of the projects initiated by the city or the government.

Besides roads and walkways, lighting is a key aspect of city development. Lighting provides a safe, crime-free and economically viable spaces for the city. They add to the night-time atmosphere by highlighting buildings and monuments, improving wayfinding, improving accessibility and creating safe spaces in the city for interaction and engagement. Lighting is a capital heavy investment made by the city and must be managed with care after the installation is done. It is important for the city to create well-developed and articulate maintenance plans for lighting and light-scaping.

In this blog post we will discuss the intricacies of managing and maintaining streetlights.

Planning for lighting

Before one actions out a project for new lamp posts or replacing streetlights, it is important to create a good plan. As investing in street lighting for a city or even an area is a large-scale project for the city. It is essential to plan the project well and also understand the economic impact on the city for a project of this scale.

In our previous post we recommended a clear five step process plan for this:

• Prepare (develop a business case or financial and technical feasibility analysis)
• Fund (through internal and/or external sources, including financing options)
• Define (develop the Project Plan, Design Plan, and Communication Plans)
• Procure (purchase the materials, the installers and the project managers)
• Manage (ongoing oversight, liaison with key stakeholders, reporting and ensuring electricity and maintenance savings are flowing through to councils)

Factoring Maintenance during the Design and Execution Phase

There are many items and actions that can be included in the design phase itself. Assessing factors like the city’s staffing capabilities, power availability, areas of high density and others can be extremely effective in planning and choosing design schemes that will work best for the city.

Materials chosen

While in some situations it might be cheaper to choose Sodium Lamps. If there are a long term plan and a larger budget, the city can consider LED Lights as well.

“The projected lifetime of LED street lights is usually 10 to 15 years, two to four times the life of currently prevalent HPS. (LEDs themselves do not generally fail or “burn out” in a way comparable to other technologies, and barring catastrophic failure of other mechanical or electronic components of the LED fixture, lifetimes are typically set by a decrease in luminous output of 30%. But the functional lifetime of a LED fixture is limited by the weakest link; associated drive electronics are typically projected to last about 50,000 hrs. If realized in practice, the less frequent need to service or replace LEDs will mean lower maintenance cost.”

How Replacing Streetlights to LED can Help the City Councils

In our previous post, we spoke about the importance of city lighting. Lighting helps improve safety, reduces crime and also uplifts the overall look of the city. Lighting is an important aspect of city planning. Just like roads and other amenities, lighting is an important mandate for all city councils. Read our post about the importance of city lighting »

Over the last five years, most city councils across Australia have actively initiated the process of replacing old streetlights to LEDs. The advantages of opting for LED Street lights are manifold.

Cost and Energy Savings

There are more than 2.3 million street lighting lamps in service in Australia, this contributes to nearly 1.5 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions each year and costing nearly $400m in energy and maintenance costs. It is stated that a change to widely accepted energy efficient technologies could save councils nearly 80% in energy costs. In addition to adopting renewable energy sources for public amenities, replacing traditional lighting with LED lighting is one of the first proven steps to reduce carbon footprint.

"Old lights use four and half times the electricity. The 80W mercury vapour streetlights cost 437% more in electricity compared to LEDs."

Click here to know more about LED lighting »

Return on Investment

While the implementation in LED light replacement appears to be a high investment. The capital cost of the new lights, installation costs, project management and other costs (such as a residual value of old lights), the initiative will pay themselves back in as little as 5 years.

"Long and predictable lifetime: The projected lifetime of LED street lights is usually 10 to 15 years, two to four times the life of currently prevalent High Pressure Sodium Lamps. (LEDs themselves do not generally fail or "burn out" in a way comparable to other technologies, and barring catastrophic failure of other mechanical or electronic components of the LED fixture, lifetimes are typically set by a decrease in luminous output of 30%."

Leading by Example

Governments at the central and local level clearly understand the positive impact of sustainability and environment-friendly solutions in cities. As cities are gearing up for a sustainable city management and development, many city councils are setting great examples.

Sydney has set a great example and is a world leader in the movement to switch over to LED lighting in public spaces. Public lighting costs make up one-third of Sydney's annual electric bill and nearly 70% of its greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2012, Sydney has saved nearly $370,000 and enjoyed a 34% reduction in energy usage.

In Brisbane, more than 20,000 LEDs have been switched over from incandescent bulbs. This includes 8,500 LED lights that have been incorporated into City Hall alone.

Melbourne is not only installing LED lighting on the street through its Public Lighting Strategy, it is also offering rebates to apartment owners who upgrade to LED lighting through the Smart Block programme.

The benefits of installing LED lights and LED downlights are real and the impact immediately noticeable. Other cities across Australia, both large and small, are taking note of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne's experiences and starting to implement their own LED lighting plans, hoping to enjoy similar cost savings, emission reductions and lowering the carbon footprint.