£30m for new smart street lights for Leeds

Friday, 19 October 2018 07:00

Street lights in Leeds are to be upgraded to make them more energy efficient after a proposal was approved by senior councillors this week.

At the meeting of the council’s executive board meeting at Civic Hall, councillors approved a recommendation to invest £25.4 million to convert 86,000 lights across the city to new LED lamps. The board also approved investing a further £5m to incorporate the light system into a ‘Smart City’ network approach, which would make them able to be controlled remotely and in real-time, connected with other city infrastructure such as CCTV, air quality and temperature monitoring.

Leeds City Council executive member for regeneration, transport and planning Councillor Richard Lewis said: “Having listened to what people told us and weighing up the costs and benefits, there is now a clear case for upgrading all streetlights in the city to more energy-efficient LEDs. With energy costs expected to rise, this is one area where we can make huge savings in cost and energy use, and it will pay for itself in ten years. There’s also potential for future savings because we’ll be able to do things like dimming street lights from a distance away.

“It also gives us an opportunity to utilise the latest technology as part of our commitment to innovation and being a Smart City, so the lighting system can be controlled and maintained at a distance in response to events, again improving efficiency and saving money. On top of this, I don’t think we’ve yet realised the full potential of smart technology in this and it offers other potential benefits in terms of air quality and road temperature monitoring, so now is the right time to invest in this technology.”

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