The City of Sydney has partnered with Ausgrid to update thousands of streetlights to efficient LED lamps in an aim to reach Sydney’s renewable energy targets.
It is part of a wider program where Ausgrid has offered 33 councils the option to accelerate the replacement of 100,000 older residential street lights across the network.
Chief Operating Officer, Trevor Armstrong, said 9,641 streetlights within the City of Sydney will now be switched to LED lamps.
“Our accelerated replacement of streetlights with LEDs is the first of its kind and Ausgrid is proud to be playing a leading role in this area.
“These new LEDs are more energy efficient, easier to maintain and will last up to 20 years. It can take up to 95 watts to power older streetlights whereas the new LEDs use just 17 watts.
“We know that streetlights are an important part of making our community safer and residents have told us they prefer the lighting quality and colour of LEDs,” Mr Armstrong said.
Work to replace the streetlights will be completed in the 2018-19 financial year. Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said the project will help the City to meet its ambitious carbon reduction targets.
“We have an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent and to source half of our electricity from renewable sources by 2030. I am so pleased that Ausgrid is working with us to help us achieve those targets.
“We own 6,500 street lights in our area and in 2009 we were the first council in Australia to trial LEDs. That saved ratepayers $800,000 a year in energy costs and reduced our carbon emissions by 2,400 tonnes a year.
“This partnership with Ausgrid to upgrade the remaining streetlights will mean that we save 3,600MWh of electricity per year and 3,500 tonnes of carbon a year – approximately nine per cent of our city’s carbon footprint.
“It is the single largest carbon reduction project that we are working on and I thank Ausgrid for their commitment and partnership,” the Lord Mayor said.
Ausgrid maintains 250,000 streetlights on behalf of councils in parts of Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter and we are continuing talks with other local councils about extending the accelerated rollout of LEDs.
