COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 22, 2014

QUESTION NO. 15

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Chief Executive for a report on efforts to improve the energy efficiency of the public lighting in the County?

REPLY:

South Dublin County Council operates 29,000 public lights across the counties public road network as well as selected footpaths and car parks. Under the councils commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions public lighting s considered.

To reduce the energy used several strategies are available.

• Dynamic lighting is utilised at candidate locations. This permits light levels to be varied during hours of darkness while complying with lighting standards. This is permissible where traffic levels reduce over night. The provided level of light is adequate for the task required and has no impact on safety. Such installations save in the region of 30% of energy consumed and has been installed at 1,500 of the more powerful street lights. Technology is now been developed that will allow dynamic lighting to be installed across the majority of the council’s public lighting network.

• On residential roads the replacement of the orange sodium lamps is considered. This allows installation of LED lamps and can save 50% of energy required. This has been used on refurbishment of lamps on residential streets.

• Where PL network renewal is required on a road or street, computer aided design programmes are used to optimise the number of lamps used and when combined with dynamic lighting up to 60% reduction has been achieved.

• The routine replacement of the photocells has reduced the ambient light level at which the light is switched on. This saves 6% of energy required by each light.

The widespread refitting of energy reducing lamps and systems across the county will represent a substantial investment by the council. A number of pilot energy saving projects have been run on both South Dublin and in other Local Authorities.  The results of these pilot studies are currently being assessed and a preferred energy saving technology will be decided upon in the near future. It is anticipated that a multi-annual energy saving investment strategy will be implemented, commencing in 2015.   Discussions are also on going with the other Dublin local Authorities with a view to implementing an energy saving strategy across the Dublin Region.