Street Lighting Smart Controls

Raj Manihar, Environmental Coordinator, Baw Baw Shire Council, Warragul Victoria 3820, Australia The Baw Baw Shire Council Street Lighting Energy Efficient Changeover Program is a community energy efficiency project on a giant scale that involved changing over 2,638 old and inefficient street lights to modern energy efficient LEDs. The total cost of the upgrade was $1.2 Million with $489,546 in grant funding received from the Australian Government. Each light changed represents a 77% reduction in electricity costs. These are savings that have started to flow through to the council, ratepayers and broader community – a total of $5.06 million in energy and maintenance savings over the 20-year life of the new lights. The project has resulted in a reduction of energy use by over 830,000 kWh a year which will result in a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by over 20,000 tonnes over the next 20 years. In addition to offering lower costs, lower energy consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions, the new lights provide better lighting outcomes for the community, including a greater uniformity of light across and along Baw Baw’s streets; better colour rendering and visibility; less depreciation of the light output over time; and lower glare. Moreover, the flow-on benefits from the community promotion and education component of the project has been far and wide, particularly in terms of increased awareness of residential and commercial energy savings.

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