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Lighting up Dunedin, not the sky

By intouch * posted 07-03-2019 11:13

  

From July, Dunedin City Council will start converting 15,000 streetlights across the city to smart, remotely controlled LEDs. Anja McAlevey, the City’s Senior Transportation Planner, says that despite the need to navigate various stakeholder interests and a steep learning curve, the resulting project will be a win for both the community and the environment.  


Scenic-view-of-Dunedin-City_-South-island_-New-Zealand-1043452492_1298x811.jpegThat's because Dunedin will soon become the first city in New Zealand to convert all its streetlights to 3000 Kelvin LEDs. The New Zealand Transport Agency typically recommends the cooler, whiter colour temperature of 4000 Kelvins for state highway lighting – but with highly engaged dark sky advocates and aspirations towards protecting the night sky, Dunedin has committed to using the warmer white lights.

The decision was not made lightly. Colour temperature can be a highly contentious issue, with advocates in both the warmer and cooler camps staunchly defending their positions. McAlevey will discuss the council’s decision at IPWEA’s Street Lighting and Smart Controls Conference in April, providing a rare insight for other local governments and road authorities that find themselves needing to make similar decisions.

“We have taken quite a few years to settle on the type of LEDs to install – particularly the colour temperature, and whether or not to install a central management system (CMS),” McAlevey says.

Part of this process was engaging a Night Sky Advisory Panel, made up of key stakeholder representatives to give advice on the lighting projects and the potential impacts. The city also conducted public trials as part of the tender process, which helped gather the community’s opinions on the different types of lights, and also alerted the public to the impending conversion.

The council recently surveyed the light levels of the whole city and is about to do a survey of night sky brightness. These surveys will be repeated after the LEDs are installed, providing useful information about the effect of the conversion and the performance of the lighting system.

Ironically, the project’s delay worked in the city’s favour.

“Multiple factors contributed to this extended timeframe, but the additional time taken allowed Dunedin City Council to thoroughly consider all of the options available,” McAlevey says. 

“Although delays in decision making can be challenging, the silver lining was that the price of luminaires plummeted during the past few years, technology greatly improved, and we have had time to consider our options and make a really solidly-based decision.”

The council was also able to take advantage of the improvements it has made to its procurement practices in recent years.

“Dunedin City Council has really come of age in procurement in the last few years – this was excellent timing for our LED conversion. We were able use procurement methods, particularly a design build maintain operate (DBMO) contract, which should result in a better outcome for Council and Dunedin residents, particularly given that the rapid advances in LED and CMS technology are set to continue,” McAlevey says.

Like many councils, staff at Dunedin were essentially in the dark about LED streetlighting when they began investigating the changeover.

“It is always a little daunting working in a new subject area,” McAlevey says.

“We upskilled through desktop research, asking questions of those in the lighting industry, attending conferences and courses, asking questions of other councils in New Zealand and abroad, and seeking specialist advice on the many different facets involved in this project, including LED benefits, economic analysis, and the potential effects of light at night on night sky viewing, wildlife and human health.”

Headshot_-_Ms_Anja_McAlevey_-_Dunedin_City_Council_-_NZ_.jpgOpting to install a city-wide CMS in tandem with the LED renewal was another big decision, but one McAlevey says will benefit the city for years to come.

“We were driven by the benefits of a CMS – the ability to control light levels, improvements to asset management, the provision of a platform for a future smart city, as well as the extensive cost of the alternative: installing CMS hardware in a few years on every luminaire.”

For other local governments and road authorities mulling an LED changeover, McAlevey says incorporating a simultaneous CMS installation makes a lot of sense.

“For some communities, particularly rural, sparsely population areas with few street lights, installing a CMS may not be as important. However, cities – particularly those who are wanting to be ready to take advantage of rapidly advancing smart city technology – should seriously consider installing a CMS concurrently with their LED conversion,” she explains.

The project’s completion date is scheduled for December 2020; McAlevey says Dunedin is looking forward to joining the growing community of smart cities benefitting from this new and improved technology.

“Although each situation is different – particularly the state of the existing asset, and the energy price – I think you would be hard pressed to find a city that would not hugely benefit from converting to LEDs, in terms of monetary savings and environmental benefits from electricity use reduction, and in the subsequent ability to pay off the conversion costs in a relatively short period of time.”

If you and your organisation are making decisions about smart city and LED lighting investments, you can't afford to miss IPWEA's Street Lighting and Smart Controls Conference, 2–4 April at the ICC, Sydney. Register now. 

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