Wirral to pilot “smart” street lights

Aug 12 2009 by Kevin Core, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL will pilot a new generation of “smart” streetlights.

Councillors have approved spending £137,000 on a trial batch of 350 new lamps, which can be centrally controlled by one computer.

Unlike Wirral’s current 37,750 streetlights, the new generation can be individually controlled and dimmed.

For example, they can grow brighter around a theatre when a performance is on, but dim when there is no show.

A council report said manufacturers predict a 40% energy saving.

Wirral currently spends £1.5m a year powering its street lamps.

The trial will equate to just 1% of Wirral’s street lighting, and only 9,500 are suitable for conversion to the new system.

But the technology does present a host of environmental benefits.

The dynamic control would allow dusk and dawn switching times to be adjusted so “burning hours” could be trimmed to an absolute minimum.

That would cut energy consumption and extend the life of the lamp.

At the moment, older lights can suffer “photocell failure”, which means the lamp does not switch off in the morning and continues to burn all day.

The new system would also eliminate the need for checks because problems would be automatically reported to the central computer.

The annual cost of running the trial will be around £700.

The report said: “It is recognised that dimming of lights will need careful consideration so as not to disadvantage the various groups who require good levels of lighting on health and safety grounds. However, the dynamic control offered by a central management system would allow easy adjustments to be made to accommodate any special requirements.”

The report added it would not be used to turn any lights off during the hours of darkness.

The technology is more advanced in Germany, where citizens in three areas stay in the dark, but can phone their route to a switchboard which will light their way.

Cllr Jean Quinn, cabinet member for street scene, said: “This technology allows us to accurately measure the energy used as we go along, which makes it possible to pay for the exact usage.

“Most importantly, we can also use it to reduce the amount of energy we are using and bring down our carbon footprint.”