In a move that has the Australian Government’s support, the multiple sectors that make up the street lighting and smart controls industry in Australia have formally committed to work collaboratively through the initiative of IPWEA's new Street Lighting and Smart Controls Program (SLSC).
The initiative has been backed by the Australian Government’s National Energy Productivity Plan and brings all the major players together with the one common purpose of advancing Australia’s uptake of LED road lighting and integrated smart controls technology in a consistent and best practice way to make our cities and towns much more energy efficient. This will be a major boost to bring smart cities to reality.
Industry leaders met at Sydney Town Hall on May 23 to obtain full details on the SLSC Program and share their knowledge and experience regarding Australia’s comparatively low LED street lighting uptake.
IPWEA CEO, Robert Fuller says: “Australia cannot afford to be lag behind the rest of the OECD world in the rapid rollout of LED and smart control lighting and technology. Only about 11% of Australian lighting has converted to LEDs, yet there are compelling reasons to switch over. Cost savings for cash strapped councils, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, less maintenance, longer life, reduced road accidents, increased safety and security measures, and a raft of other proven benefits have been substantiated by cities overseas that have installed hundreds of thousands of LED lights over the last five to six years.
"The smart controls technology will be the ‘digital disrupters of cities’ – the Uber analogy of how people will interact with cites in the near future.”
IPWEA has engaged all of the peak industry bodies, all leading commercial lighting suppliers, the hi-tech smart controls industry, energy networks distributors and the Australian Government to unite in producing a two year plan of coordinated action to harmonise the industry under the SLSC Roadmap which is currently being drafted.
New Zealand has also been invited to join the Program.
Fuller says: “While there have definitely been good pockets of LED installations – usually in capital cities such as the showcase of Sydney City Council – the vast uptake potential for councils across Australia has yet to be embraced.
"We acknowledge that there are some regulatory hurdles and historical matters that we believe can be overcome with a will to move forward. The SLSC Program, being presented at last month’s COAG meeting, was a positive start in this change process.
“The industry has committed to work collaboratively and to pool their knowledge for the sake of getting this new technology right for Australia. We are too small a player on the world scene not to be adopting proven and leading edge technologies and systems from overseas.”
The new SLSC Council to oversee and advise the industry had its inaugural meeting today. Consisting of industry icons Philips, Gerard Lighting, Current Powered by GE, Cisco, Silver Springs, and industry being represented by, Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), Lighting Council Australia (LCA), Energy Networks Association (ENA) and IPWEA together with the Australia Government through the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science - there are certainly enough heavyweights to ensure that the activities of the SLSC Programme are targeted to achieve the best possible outcome to ensure the rapid uptake of LEDs and smart controls consistently across the nation.