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Public lighting is a major energy consumer in our country. The Energy Agreement has therefore formulated clear objectives: in 2020, the energy consumption of all public lighting and traffic control installations must be 20 percent lower than in 2013. A challenge, since in 2016 the energy saving was only 4.7 percent.
08-06-2018 09:22 | BY: BRITT VAN DEN ELSHOUT
But what needs to be done to achieve that goal? The sub-objectives answer this. These play mainly on public lighting, since the most saving is possible there. For example, in 2020, 40 percent of all public lighting must be equipped with smart energy management and 40 percent of the lamps must be energy-efficient.
The results of these sub-targets were positive in 2016. Twenty percent of all public lighting was energy-efficient and 25 percent provided with smart energy management. A good reason for the government to convert annual monitoring to a biennial audit.
What we call smart is not smart enough yet
According to Robert Tissing, director of Luminext, not a very smart move. Tissing states that achieving the sub goals does not automatically achieve the main objective of energy saving. "When the shares of smart and energy-efficient lighting increase from 25 to 40 percent in 2020, the energy saving will not suddenly go from 4.7 to 20 percent."
Tissing explains that there is still a lot to be gained, especially in the field of smart energy management. Luminext itself supplies systems for dynamic public lighting, also known as smart street lamps. Thanks to software, all light points in a network are connected and individually dimmable, so that there is never more lighting than necessary or desirable. That is a more detailed system than what the Energy Agreement asks for.
"In the Energy Agreement a system counts as smart when it switches differently than the old-fashioned way, whereby all the lights are turned on or off at once. In this way you can include a dimmer switch in the system that ensures, for example, that after 12 hours the light is dimmed in a certain neighborhood. This saves you much less than that is actually possible. What the Energy Agreement mentions smartly is not yet smart enough. "
Necessary investments
Municipalities are crucial players when it comes to achieving the target. They own the vast majority, 94 percent, of all public lighting in the Netherlands. This part is responsible for 85 percent of the total energy consumption of public lighting. So a municipality can make big steps in the field of energy saving, but the implementation of smart lighting has not gone very fast in recent years.
Municipalities must make jumps in the next two years to reach the energy goal
"A lamppost will last 30 to 40 years", says Tissing. "On the basis of this lifespan, municipalities must replace about one-thirtieth of the area per year. However, if you work at that pace, it takes far too long before all street lights are smart. Additional investments will therefore have to be made. "
These investments will pay out according to Tissing. In addition to saving energy with smart lighting systems and allowing the lighting to dim whenever and wherever possible, the system also provides information about the lamp. This indicates how much electricity is being used and whether the light is on or is defective. In this way municipalities can manage their public lighting more efficiently and start repairs quickly.
Municipalities have to get started
Tissing expects a huge acceleration in the implementation of smart lighting within the next five years. "At present, you see more and more that municipalities replace a large part of their area at once. For example, around 5,000 street lamps will be delivered in three Brabant municipalities in the near future, which will be equipped with smart LED lighting. If we want to achieve the energy goal, it is now important for more municipalities to make such leaps in the next two years. "The combination of LED lighting and dynamic lighting provides the most benefit.
This replacement is not cheap, but municipalities do not have to fully invest in new lighting themselves. Tissing gives an example: "Municipalities can issue a tender whereby they will look for a party or several market parties for the next 15 years that will arrange the lighting. The municipality then sets certain requirements and the parties involved pay a fixed amount per year. In this way, the municipality does not have to invest a large amount in one go. Of course, the switch to smart lighting is still a big decision for a municipality, but in the end everyone is moving forward because of the enormous energy savings. " |
