Case study (47 Kb PDF)

Summary

Energy inefficient public lighting is not just a problem for local municipalities. Problems of this kind occur in all major and fast developing cities. The constant demand on the infrastructure leads to a reduction in the quantity and the types of lights that are installed, and consequently, an overview of power consumption is lost. Problems that occur in the local municipalities often have a common starting point. Several local communities tried to solve the problem in numerous ways, but only a few with any success.

Energy consumption and the cost for public lighting increased every year in the Municipality of Velenje, where energy consumption for public lighting in 2005 was 1 788 802 kWh.

In 2006, in the framework of KSSENA’s activities, we developed an energy-efficient public lighting strategy to revise it according to strategic and specific objectives and the decree on limit values due to light pollution of the environment (Official gazette of Slovenia, 81/2007 and 109/2007).

The main goal of the strategy was to achieve energy efficient investments in public buildings, as a role model for other municipalities and to decrease energy consumption, costs and CO2 emissions resulting from public lighting. By executing the action plan developed in the strategy, the energy consumption in 2008 decreased to1 100 783 kWh.

Results

In the Municipality of Velenje we changed over 1 500 public lamps into energy efficient lighting.

The most efficient change involved replacing 250 400 W lamps with 150 W lamps.

The result of the project:

• 1 500 lamps replaced by more energy efficient lamps.
• The reduction of energy consumption by 688 019 kW in 3 years.
• Over €150 000  saved in the past 3 years.
• Less light pollution in the environment.

In 2008 we marked every lamp so the general public can inform the municipality of anomalies in the lamps (broken lamps, not operating, etc).

Lessons learned and repeatability

The lack of expert knowledge often leads to the fact that energy efficiency is not seen as a priority. Problems with public lighting are often not only a problem for individual local municipalities. The core of the problem is on the other side: legal frameworks, the absence of investment money, undetermined ownership, etc. To harmonise the instructions and the methodologies on a EU level is the key to successfully achieving the determined tasks. It is essential to learn from best practices examples where the energy inefficiency of public lighting was effectively solved. The other aspect is to exchange experiences and transfer know-how among the municipalities, enterprises and other stakeholders.

Since different technologies are constantly emerging, we should focus more on LED technology, which seems to be the leading technology. Creating a public lighting development strategy for the Municipality of Velenje was a pilot project in Slovenia. Nowadays many Slovenian municipalities create their own public lighting strategies based on the strategy used in Velenje.

It is essential for municipalities to create such strategies in cooperation with city planners, architects and energy experts to achieve the highest possible results for attractive and energy efficient public buildings.

The project was replicated in several municipalities in Slovenia, which is a good way to spread the best practice through out the country.