LED Street Lights to Save Essex More than £1 Million a Year

Essex County Council has announced plans to add LED bulbs to 19,000 street lamps. Work will begin immediately and will be complete in 2018.

The move from sodium bulbs will save the county £112,000 per year in maintenance. It will also reduce Essex’s annual tax bill for street lamps by 60%, while saving a further £91,000 in carbon tax. The biggest saving will come in the form of lighting costs – a whopping £1 million per year! 

The 19,000 street lamps in line for the change to LED bulbs constitute just 14 per cent of the total number street lamps in Essex. Yet this is a major step forward for carbon footprint reduction. The LED bulbs will provide light where it is most needed – in the city centre, dangerous junctions and in areas monitored by CCTV.

Lighting in these areas is (and will continue to be) exempt from Essex’s part-night lighting policy, which decrees that lights be switched off between 1am and 5am.

What will the change to LED lights cost?

The cost of installing LED bulbs will be £9.2 million. The Department for Energy and Climate Change will provide £4.35 million of this figure as an interest-free loan. Yet the long-term savings more than justify the initial cost.

Why is the Council making the change?

Essex County Council voted to make the change to LED lighting after a pilot program to monitor energy savings proved a great success. The program showed the potential vast savings in terms of both energy and maintenance. 

The Council says it will continue to monitor the benefits of the move to LED over the next few years. If warranted (which we’re sure it will be), the Council will begin to convert its part-night lighting. Considering that there are currently 127,000 streetlights in Essex, such a job will be enormous – but then so will the savings made.