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This Surrey installation is expected to help save up to 60,000 tonnes of carbon over 25 years
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Local authorities are under increasing pressure to save both carbon and cash. The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) is putting the focus on carbon emissions and the massive budget reductions imposed by the government are ensuring that council spending is also in the spotlight. These demands from central government have meant that councils are looking at different ways to help them meet the targets.
There has been much publicity in the national press about local authorities deciding to switch off street lights and, for many councils, keeping street lights on throughout the night is now seen as a luxury, leading to some taking the controversial decision to switch off large numbers at specific times. Buckinghamshire County Council recently switched off 1,600 of its street lights and is estimated to be saving in the region of £700,000 per annum as a result. Somerset Council has switched off 500 street lights between 00:30 and 05:00, which will save them £18,500 and 122 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
Remote control
With approximately 89,000 street lights, Surrey County Council decided to follow an altogether different route, taking the decision to become one of the first local authorities to deploy LeafNut, a wireless remote monitoring and control system from Harvard Engineering.
The council was keen to deploy a solution that would reduce its street lighting pollution, cut energy usage, save money on maintenance costs and one which could be easily retrofitted to its existing street lighting infrastructure. The LeafNut street lighting solution, which won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the innovation category this year, met all these criteria.
The system allows councils to dim street lights to meet their specific location requirements, helping them to save up to 40% in energy costs and 50% in carbon emissions. The system uses the WiMAC Central Management System (CMS) technology to remotely monitor and control street lights, means lighting levels can be dimmed at times of low need, in the early hours of the morning for example. They can however, also be increased at anytime, should it be necessary, with a few simple keystroke commands on a desktop, laptop or even iPhone.
Financial savings
Street lighting operators in Surrey are able to manage light output, dimming street lights to match the specific requirements of the area at times of low activity, for example between 01:00 to 05:30, at the same time reducing carbon emissions as a result. In addition, the system has been designed to be simply retrofitted to existing street lights, so could replace existing copper ballasts in Surrey’s old street lights, with no separate wiring or power supply required.
The maintenance costs have also been reduced, with engineers spending less time on the road carrying out night scouting for failed lamps and being able to plan better maintenance schedules by accurately predicting lamp failure. Additional financial savings are also gained from reduced energy consumption, as the technology used will directly measure actual consumption rather than unmetered supply.
According to Surrey County Council’s leader, Dr. Andrew Povey, this will be the largest scale introduction of this type of street lighting technology in Britain, but is likely to become more common, as Harvard’s Michael McDonnell explains: “We are noticing a growing interest from local councils, particularly following the launch of the attractive finance packages we have set up in conjunction with a number of high street banks. Something we thought would be of interest following central government’s decision to review Public Finance Initiatives and Public Sector Partnerships.”
The Surrey installation is expected to help save up to 60,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and 150 million kilowatt hours over the next 25 years. LeafNut has been used by over 40 local authorities globally and has also been installed in applications varying from car parks to theme parks.
For further information visit www.harvardeng.com.
This article appeared in the June 2011 issue of Greenbuild magazine. To subscribe click here .
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