RightLight launches efficient road lighting programme

Significant cost savings are on the horizon for ratepayers and councils around New Zealand through more efficient road lighting technology with seminars planned for Auckland and Hamilton in the New Year.

Apart from saving electricity and ratepayers’ money, the new road lighting technologies can offer added benefits of enhanced safety for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

The Electricity Commission’s efficient road-lighting seminar, run as part of its highly successful RightLight campaign, has generated widespread interest from local authority lighting engineers and consultants throughout the country

The seminar launched special online resources designed to help councils compare the efficiency of their current road lighting networks with more efficient options and to calculate the costs and saving potential.

Reefton was the first town in the southern hemisphere to install street lights in 1888 and the seminar is the first attempt to co-ordinate road lighting in New Zealand for 121 years.

“We sent out an invitation and had twice the demand we expected,” Justine McDermott, Efficient Road Lighting Project Manager said. “We had to add additional seminars in both Christchurch and Wellington, and we now have around 100 people trained in the use of the new tools.”

Ms McDermott said that to meet demand, the Commission would run more seminars in Auckland, Dunedin and Hamilton in the New Year.

Every year, New Zealand’s 330,000 road lights run for 4000 hours each at a cost of $30 million to ratepayers.

A Christchurch City Council trial of the new technology at Avonhead achieved savings of 25 to 50 percent in electricity costs, Ms McDermott said.

ENDS

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