Street lights get smarter

With the convergence of lighting and the Internet of Things (IoT), today’s outdoor lighting systems deliver benefits beyond illumination. They don’t just illuminate streets, parks and other public areas but also provide connectivity and play a vital role in smart city initiatives.

Cities and councils around the world are replacing their legacy streetlights with LED streetlights. The upgrades help councils improve energy efficiency, safety and security, and reduce electricity consumption and maintenance costs. Intelligent streetlights can also provide several other benefits such as seamless mobile wireless 4G LTE connectivity, improved traffic monitoring and air pollution detection among others.

There are currently more than 300 million streetlights around the world, and the figure is expected to reach 350 million by 2025. LED and smart streetlights are projected to reach 84% and 37% of the total streetlight market, respectively, by 2025, according to research and consulting firm northeast group. In Australia, Around 300,000 street lights have already been replaced. This amounts to around 2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas abatement.

To get some insights on the current status and future prospects of the street lighting market in Australia, ECD spoke to Alexi Lynch from Ironbark Sustainability, a specialist consultancy that has assisted many local governments to plan for and implement lighting changeovers for both council-owned and distributor-owned lights.

How many street lights are being replaced in Australia?

There are 2.3 million street lights in Australia, so while we’ve come a long way there are still over 2 million to be replaced. However, around 100 councils across Australia have now implemented energy-efficient street lighting projects so we’ve come an incredibly long way.

The vast majority of energy-efficient street lights changed over are in Victoria where 68 of Victoria’s 79 councils have completed bulk changeover projects or will have completed them by June 2016.

NSW is also making significant progress in this area. The Western Sydney Light Years Ahead project is the new ‘gold standard’ for councils in NSW with an accelerated rollout of 13,000 LEDs throughout nine councils in the region. already completed as the councils look at next steps. 

In Queensland, Brisbane City Council has completed the biggest project for a single council by changing 25,000 lights to 42 W CFLs and they are now investigating plans to install LEDs on a large scale. Ipswitch has changed over 2000 LEDs.

In Tasmania, around 5000 lights are being changed in Hobart and Glenorchy. We could see some major changes with Tasmanian councils now able to access the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAVs) standing procurement panel of approved street lights. This will save Tassie councils hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours in internal procurement resourcing alone as they can fast-track purchasing of the LEDs themselves without having to go out to tender or quote. Essentially, this has already be done for them by the MAV and the Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT) on their behalf.

In South Australia, there have been no ‘bulk changes’ apart from the capital City of Adelaide, but councils are actively taking a more collaborative approach that has paid off elsewhere.

In Western Australia, several thousand have been replaced around Esperance and in the ACT the government is an active innovator and has been active in working with LEDs.

In a nutshell, the street lighting scene is set to change dramatically over the next five years.

How does Australia compare with other countries in terms of public lighting upgrades?

Many jurisdictions internationally are using smart controls, and some have installed controls for future use. This latter is more common where the application for smart control has not been delivered, but the technology has been enabled to allow future retrofitting. We are also seeing an increasing number of pilot projects.

Australia is different to many other countries in that the minimum lighting level for residential streets is very low, around seven times lower than the minimum level in the UK. Due to this, many different advantages of control technologies, for example dimming, available to other markets are not available in Australia.

The interest in smart controls has grown significantly in Australia in recent years. This is primarily because the industry’s attention has started to move to LEDs for major roads, such as highways, freeways and arterials. There are several advantages of using smart lights on major roads, especially when it comes to controlling lighting levels. In contrast to residential streets, there is an opportunity to reduce lighting levels on major roads during off-peak periods. Additionally, major roads are often the areas where councils want to be able to increase lighting for major events or identify faults more promptly.

Your thoughts on the current state and the future of the Australian lighting industry?

It’s an exciting time to be in the lighting industry with massive projects already completed and more exciting projects to come. Now that we have some real-world examples that demonstrate how large-scale LED projects can be implemented (eg, http://lightingtheregions.com.au/, http://www.lightingthewest.com.au/, http://wattsworkingbetter.com.au/), we’ll see more LED projects replicated throughout Australia and more states and councils wanting to jump on board.  We’ll see more LEDs and smart controls being used in the local market.

In regards to smart lighting and smart networks, anyone planning for a lighting replacement needs to ensure the technology is going to be compatible with a future smart network rollout (futureproofed) if not actually connected to a smart network straight away.

A number of attributes mean that street lighting is an ideal component within a smart city. Its physical location high on a pole means there is good ability for clear communication; its ubiquitous presence anywhere there are reasonable densities of people means the light can reinforce the network where the need for data is greatest; and the presence of power at the light means that connecting the smart networks communication device to electricity is easy.

The idea of smart cities and smart networks is one that is eliciting great interest from communities worldwide and while 2016 will see some great steps forward we’ll also start to see the wheat being separated from the chaff. Some products and suppliers have the potential to be truly transformative and could start being piloted and even rolled out now.

However, councils, roads authorities and utilities should take any smart city sales pitch with a grain of salt because while there is some fascinating technology out there, in some jurisdictions the underlying architecture for fully integrated smart cities leaves a bit to be desired.

One project to keep an eye on in regards to smart lighting is the City of Melbourne’s project to replace public lighting with more than 16,000 energy-efficient LEDs. While Melbourne will only be using proven street light technologies for this rollout, it will make provisions to allow for smart lighting attributes to be retrofitted (see http://www.cleanenergyfinancecorp.com.au/investments/case-studies/city-of-melbourne-sustainability-drive-focuses-on-leds,-solar.aspx).

As mentioned previously, the differences in lighting standards across the world means that you can’t simply take international price or technology trends and apply to them to Australia. The bigger impact has been seen through local trends and conditions and with a broader range of LEDs now being approved by utilities since late 2015 we have much greater local competition and can expect to see prices coming down.

What are some of the key challenges faced by councils when switching to LEDs?

In 2011, Ironbark Sustainability was commissioned by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency to consult with councils, distribution network services providers (DNSPs) and main road authorities around the development of a National Energy Efficient Street Lighting Strategy to drive change nationally.

As a part of the development of this strategy, Ironbark conducted a nationwide survey and collated information on challenges and barriers to improving street lighting energy efficiency in Australia. The strong response (over 200 respondent organisations) to the survey is consistent with the complex nature of the issue of energy efficiency in street lighting and the main barriers identified by councils were costs (most commonly capital cost); expertise and time to deal with the complexity of street lighting; and working with external stakeholders.

The capital cost barrier

The cost of undertaking a street lighting bulk changeover can run into the millions of dollars. However, over the last few years dozens of councils were successful in receiving funding through the federal government’s competitive Community Energy Efficiency Program (CEEP), which matched council contributions. On top of this, there is further funding available in NSW through the Energy Savings Scheme (ESC) and financing options through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. We’ve also seen costs come down dramatically through bulk procurement of materials and through more contestability in some jurisdictions.

The expertise barrier

As more projects are implemented, there is more knowledge on efficient lighting. Local councils and government associations around Australia now have staff whose only function is to deploy energy-efficient street lighting. Ironbark now has 15 staff members working on street lighting. With tens of thousands of lights already upgraded across different jurisdictions in Australia, the stakeholders are now more aware than before of the technology.

The relationships barrier

Collaboration works. Arguing doesn’t. Every successful street lighting project in Australia has been the result of cooperative dialogue and relationship between councils, DNSPs and other key stakeholders. This is not to say there are no disagreements along the way but councils and DNSPs have put aside their differences and worked together to achieve a common goal. And councils and DNSPs have both benefited. In jurisdictions where key stakeholders are still fighting the only people who benefit are lawyers and consultants.

However, the traditional challenges faced by councils have been overcome in many jurisdictions. The local government sector has seen energy-efficient street lighting projects approved and implemented over the last few years.

How much can councils save through public lighting upgrades?

This totally depends on the council, the number of lights, the technology and the location (especially state and distribution business). Considering the vast majority of residential lights are 80 W MVs (which have a total wattage of ~96 W) and the approved replacements are 18 W (total wattage of ~22 W), pure energy savings are up to 77%. The lights don’t have meters so the energy use is modelled, which essentially guarantees the savings — if you relace an 80 W with an 18 W you will definitely see the 77% electricity saving. As LEDs require a lot less maintenance compared to the old inefficient technology such as mercury vapours, there are also significant maintenance savings to be made.

What’s your growth strategy?

Street lighting now is really about scale up and roll out. Initially, this means making sure the relationships are working effectively — that councils and electricity distribution businesses are collaborating effectively and that councils are the drivers of the programs. We’re only interested in working on projects that offer benefits to councils. We were born out of the desire of councils wanting assistance to save money and energy, so this is where we’ll stay.

We’re keen on using the learnings from the successful projects we’ve been involved in and replicating successful residential LED street lighting projects in areas where there has been a lack of progress — especially in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. The opportunities for councils in these states to cut their energy bills is too good to miss. The 80 W mercury vapour street lights that are in use in areas where upgrades are yet to be implemented cost 437% more in electricity compared to LEDs. Even when you take into account the capital cost of the materials (new lights), installation costs, project management and other costs (such as residual value of old lights), these projects demonstrate high returns on investment and can pay themselves back in as little as five years. There’s no excuse any more to be paying 437% of the electricity costs than neighbouring councils with LEDs are paying — it’s time to move. 

We’re also keen on looking at the opportunities that emerging technology can bring to councils and their communities. Ironbark has obtained National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accreditation as an inspection body for street light luminaires, which means we can independently assess the latest street lighting technology and provide third-party advice. The advancement of smart technology and the convergence of wireless technology and internet-enabled devices will see massive changes to our cities into the future but the $64m question is around timeframes. We’re already seeing ‘local intelligence’ programmed into individual LED controllers that are set to fixed and reconfigurable settings such as dimming or turning off at set times. Or a street lighting management system could be embedded within ‘smart city’ infrastructure where the LED modifies its standard lighting operation in response to an external sensor or control signal such as a detection of increased traffic or the presence of pedestrians. This is an area that we all need to know more about and is of great interest in the coming wave of replacements.

However, as mentioned previously, we’re also aware that the architecture for fully integrated smart cities is not quite ready. Because of this gap, we are keen to continue working with councils to futureproof new lighting infrastructure so they can be ready for the smart cities of the future — and over the next decade we’re keen on helping them make this a reality.

Image caption: LED street light in Prairewood, Fairfield LGA (Part of Western Sydney Light Years Ahead project). Credit: Serge Golikov.