StreetLightNews

In a cooperation between USAID, the United States agency for international development, and the Armenian government, a new lighting network has been installed. The infrastructure of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, is worn down and outdated and has not been upgraded for decades. This has had a very negative influence on the street light quality.
Previously, the street light was controlled in branches with only basic on/off functionalities. Each branch had to be inspected every day by technicians in order to avoid numerous outages. This procedure was not only labor-intensive, but also a very expensive practice.
Through USAID, a project involving 19 streets and 37 kilometers of line was launched in order to demonstrate the efficiency of such an installation. A centralized solution was chosen, allowing full control of the street lights from Yerevan’s lighting network center. This has enabled flexible lighting, allowing street light dimming at 1/3 and ½ of the full intensity. Daily inspections are no longer required and requests and inquiries from the central control point are immediately answered.
So far, the savings are expected to exceed the investments by 81%, allowing for a return-on-investment of approximately four years. There are plans to implement the system in the entire Armenian capital, supplying Yerevan residents with street light of significantly higher quality and reliability. The fact that it is cheaper and energy saving is an added bonus.
Source: http://armenia.usaid.gov

According to a study by a local Indian citizen’s group, India can save thousands of dollars by managing their street lights more effectively. Even late at night, lights are blazing for empty streets, says the group, making the suggestion that cities turn off every other street light. This is possible at a very low cost. This type of energy saving has been practiced in Europe for decades, but many have found out that the strobing effect it has on drivers and the affects on the night safety for pedestrians are disadvantages that justify investments in energy saving solutions where the street lights can be dimmed instead of turned off.

Turning off every other street light, as suggested by the Citizen’s Council, may provide energy savings, but it hardly qualifies as ‘effective management of street light’. Rather, it is an old-fashioned approach for a problem that requires solutions at a higher technical level. We have seen advanced solutions be installed in several developing countries, financed in a number of different ways to make them attractive even for municipalities in the most ailing economies.

In Delhi, they are getting the gist of things, inviting tenders to bid on a street light management system for a 365 km stretch of road. It seems that they have realized that simply turning off every two or three street light is insufficient and not nearly visionary enough. Read the article here…

Effective management of streetlights in the late night hours can save India over Rs 10,000 crore, an amount that could go for the setting up of three power plants of 1000 mw each. Read more…

Increasing costs of electrical energy are sparking considerations among local UK authorities to turning off their street lights for certain periods. However, the Institution of Lighting Engineers, UK, has outlined the benefits of not turning off the lights completely, including crime prevention and traffic safety. Instead, they recommend that the street lights are either dimmed, made dynamic (changing according to the traffic levels) or controlled via photocells. See more here…