The City of Melbourne Council aims to replace 16,000 street lights with energy-efficient LED luminaires within two or three years.
The council received a $30 million loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for a range of sustainability initiatives, including a $14.8 million project to change all its street lights to LEDs.
Councillor Arron Wood, Chair of the City of Melbourne’s Environment Portfolio, says the council is in the process of drafting an MOU as well as a works plan with the two electricity distribution utilities in its area, CitiPower and Powercor.
“And we hope to begin the program very soon. We're thinking it will be a two year roll out,” Wood says.
While the Council will only be using proven street light technologies for this rollout, it will make provisions to allow for upgrades.
“What we are building in is the ability to attach a box to the pole, which will sit a little away from the LED light, which will then allow smart lighting attributes to be retrofitted," Wood says.
IPWEA Australasia Director of Sustainability Stephen Lees says he welcomes the City of Melbourne's commitment to LED bulbs, but queries the MOU being negotiated with CitiPower and Powercor.
“In Australia most street lights are owned, operated and maintained by the utilities, but local councils have to pay for all the costs," Lees says. "If local councils want the street lights in their area changed over to LEDs they have to negotiate with their utilities from a position of weakness. The agreements reached generally require the councils to pay for all costs of the design, procurement and installation of the LEDs, plus the written-off cost of the old lights. It will be interesting to see what deal a large and influential council like the City of Melbourne can negotiate.
“The lack of real control over street lighting that local councils are obliged to pay for is a key barrier to the deployment of LED lamps. The Institute is working toward initiatives to address this in 2016."
Lees says the City of Melbourne LED changeover is part of a world-wide trend.
“The old street light technology has been around for 50 to 60 years," Lees says. "But no one is putting them in any more. LEDs are clearly superior. They use far less electricity. They are more reliable than traditional lights, with a failure rate much, much lower. LEDs use to be more expensive but the (upfront) cost has now come down to about the same as traditional lightning."
Lees adds LED bulbs also provide public safety and road safety benefits.
“They produce a white light that makes it easier for motorists and pedestrians to see at night,” he says. “Another advantage is less light pollution. You can actually focus the light from LEDs to where you want it.”
Wood says the upgraded street lights will use 56% less power than existing lights. This will slash energy bills for the City of Melbourne by $1.1 million a year, with the savings used by Council to pay off the $30 million loan within five years.
Up to $10 million from the loan will go to the Sustainable Melbourne Fund (SMF) to finance environmental projects, all of which will be paid back to the City of Melbourne at the end of the five year period, which in turn will be paid towards the CEFC loan.