Part-night energy reduction scheme for Leicestershire County Council
Background
Lucy Zodion has worked with the street lighting team at Leicestershire County Council for 15 years. Two years ago Leicestershire County Council began a major policy realignment to reduce energy consumption and costs as part of its carbon reduction management initiative. This included a four-year programme to exchange 40,000 pre-identified all night photocells to part night photocells. It chose Zodion Ltd as one of its partners for the programme, and tasked the company with supplying 40,000 Zodion SS9 part night photocells.
Solutions
The Council’s annual carbon emissions totalled around 58,000 tonnes, of which street lighting accounted for around 18%. The principle aim of the project is to reduce energy consumption and therefore the cost of Leicestershires annual energy budget by up to a quarter.
When completed the programme could save up to 3,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, roughly the equivalent of 25% of Leicestershire County Councils street lighting carbon emissions. In addition, it is predicted that by reducing its energy consumption from street lighting the Council will cut its energy bill by £700,000 per year.
As well as exchanging 40,000 all night photocells for part night photocells, the switching levels are being trimmed to provide additional savings. Approximately 2,000 high wattage lanterns will also be dimmed to lower light levels at times when the traffic flow is generally reduced compared to peak times. The project is being rolled out by Leicestershire County Council area-by-area following consultation with each area representatives. Thus far responses have been extremely positive and there is widespread endorsement of the new policy.
Results
The strategy implemented by Leicestershire County Council, supported by the products and expertise provided by Lucy Zodion, has enabled the council to make significant savings already whilst eliminating the need to remove street lighting altogether during peak traffic flow periods or causing significant disruption to Leicestershire residents. So far both energy and cost savings are both in line with the targets set out by Leicestershire County Council and legislative requirements.
Peter Hosking, Street Lighting Manager at Leicestershire County Council, said:
I am happy with the partnership and close working relationship that we have built up with Lucy Zodion over the years. This has enabled us as a team to achieve impressive results for each project undertaken, with this latest one being no exception. Zodion understands our needs and the environment in which we work, and this coupled with its expertise and knowledge means that we receive consistently excellent service from them.
