Lighting upgrade delivers £1m annual savings for Bristol CC

Bristol City Council has saved over £1 million in a year after upgrading its street lights.

Figures have shown that the energy efficient solutions supplied by GE Lighting have resulted in savings of over £1 million per year for the local authority.

The project saw the replacement of around 8,000 existing high-pressure sodium lamps to GE’s CMH StreetWise ceramic metal halide lamps over a one-year period. Phase two of the upgrade began in July 2012 and involved the replacement of a further 12,000 lamps in Bristol’s residential areas.

All of the lamps have been replaced in conjunction with dimmable ballasts to allow for a greater energy savings and to ensure the council has the flexibility to dim the new lamps (between 7pm and 6am) to an even lower output as and when required.

The initial phase of the upgrade recorded annual savings of up to £500,000 – but now the project has reached completion, the council has calculated that the savings have doubled to a staggering £1 million every year. In addition, CO2 emissions have been significantly reduced by more than 4,000 tonnes each year, making a substantial contribution towards the council’s long-term carbon goals.

Robbie Park, principal lighting officer for Bristol City Council, commented: “These are fantastic results that have had a major impact on our annual lighting bill and go a long way towards helping us reach our carbon reduction targets – which is good news for the council, the residents of Bristol and the environment as a whole. As well as the financial and carbon savings, the upgraded white light has improved visibility on our night time streets, making pedestrians and drivers feel more secure.”