Regional Sustainability Group - March 2013
By: Regional Projects Coordinator, Frederick Marchant...
The first meeting of 2013 for the Sustainability Group was held on 28 February with a focus on energy efficient streetlighting. We were fortunate to have Andrew Mulcahy and Adrian Stephenson from Ergon Energy join us to update the group on the latest information about energy efficient streetlights.
Streetlights in most suburban streets in our region are likely to be a mercury vapour light (pictured left), which were invented in 1901 and refined over the years to become one of the most common forms of street lighting. LED (light-emitting diode) lighting was developed in the 1960s and is becoming the streetlight of choice, offering great reliability and more importantly a 50-60% reduction in energy use. Furthermore, LED lights can have built-in control systems to allow batches of lights to communicate remotely with each other and achieve additional energy savings by switching off alternate lights or dimming selected lights during off-peak hours.
While there has been some progress towards implementing streetlight replacement, we have a way to go before we will see the wholesale rollout of this new technology and the replacement of existing lights.
Although streetlight replacement may seem like a fairly straightforward idea there are quite a few barriers preventing immediate implementation. Most lights are owned and managed by the energy supplier (in this case Ergon Energy) and suppliers in Queensland are governed by various regulations including restrictions in replacing functioning (in life) luminaires. These regulations are currently under review to enable Ergon Energy to determine such things as the residual value of lights being replaced. Councils are charged for energy use and maintenance and these tariffs are also currently under review which in turn makes future replacement planning difficult until replacement costs and tariffs are set. Another impediment has been the Australian Standards for streetlighting, which is lagging behind with regard to considering energy efficient luminaires, in particular LEDs. Again, this is under review and changes to the Australian Standards are expected quite soon.
One really good step has been the completion of an audit of every individual streetlight in our region by Ergon Energy. Results of the audit have been sent out to Councils over the past months. Data obtained included the type of luminaire, size, age, purpose and a complex list of other attributes. Each light has been located using GPS positioning, providing the opportunity to create a GIS map of all lights across our region. The audit has been an invaluable process and provides essential tools to plan a regional approach to future streetlight replacement.
Energy efficient streetlighting is part of FNQROC's Strategic Direction and we will continue to work in partnership with Councils, Ergon Energy and other stakeholders.