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successful projects

Streetlighting Retrofit Programme, Salford

At a time when many other local authorities areswitching off their streetlights to save money,Urban Vision has devised a strategy to improve thestreet lighting performance in Salford whilst

making significant financial savings for the counciland helping to meet their carbon reductiontargets.

Salford City Council recognised the risks posed by the

poor condition of its street lighting stock and was

concerned that the energy costs were rising

considerably each year. The carbon reduction targets

set by the government could not be met due to limited

budgets available for projects. The Council knew that

something must be done but concluded that an entire

column replacement programme would beunaffordable and recognised that a more innovative

solution was required.

Urban Vision devised an invest-to-save programme to

retrofit the existing columns with lanterns that create

energy and maintenance savings. These savings are

financing the retrofit of the existing lanterns whilst

covering the cost of dealing with any columns that are

structurally defective.

An evaluation of the options available by Urban Visionconcluded that white light had the potential to achieve

the desired criteria. However the existing lamp

replacement solutions were limited in the amount of

energy that could be saved. Utilising the practices of

overnight dimming and trimming lights was recognised

to add further savings.

In order to make the financial model work, Urban Vision

specified that the new lanterns must provide a 50%

reduction in the street lighting energy bill, have a 20

year guaranteed design life and a base unit cost of

approximately 250. Recent advances in the

technology involved in Light Emitting Diode (LED)

lanterns were identified as likely to meet these three

criteria, so Urban Vision carried out a soft market

testing exercise with the top ten LED suppliers. LEDRoadway Lighting from Canada was selected.

One of the services provided from our Colwyn Bay office ......

successful people, projects and performance

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successful people, projects and performance

An initial project of 2,000 lanterns, installed in early

2012, saved at least 80,000 each year in reduced

energy and a 65% reduction in maintenance costs.

Unlike traditional lanterns, which need to be replaced

every four years, LED lanterns do not require routine

maintenance during the warranty period, only electricalinspections required by law every six years.

In order to assemble the case, Urban Vision drew upon

Capita Symonds in-house staff from offices across the

UK to research carbon and energy inflation.

Calculations showed that without investing in LED

lanterns, Salfords street lighting energy bill would rise

from 1m to 10m over 20 years if energy costs

continue to rise at 12% per year.

Urban Vision subsequently compiled a report for thecouncil that demonstrated the financial case for

retrofitting the remaining 24,000 streetlights with LED

lanterns. The proposal included the necessary work to

repair, refurbish or replace all columns needing

attention. The substantial energy and maintenance

savings meant that Salford had two revenue streams to

fund an invest-to-save solution over 20 years.

The use of these lanterns in the retrofit of 24,000

lanterns in Salford will potentially provide the Council

with 56% energy savings and maintenance reductions

of two thirds. This enabled year on year budget savings

including savings during the year of installation, even

after funding 2,500 new columns, repairs to others and

repayment of the capital and financing costs, making

this self-financed project massively beneficial to

council. This has meant that a number of other local

authorities are now turning to Salford to use their

invest-to-save model to improve their own street

lighting.

The project was also recently received the award for

the Most Innovative Highway Scheme of the Yearat the

Highways Magazine Excellence Awards 2012.

successful projects

Streetlighting Retrofit Programme, Salford

Keys to Success

Innovative design

Effective programme management

Environmental benefits including reduction in energy

costs and carbon footprint

Potential enhanced detection of crime

Creative solutions

Commercial understanding

Financial benefits including annual savings in energy

and maintenance

Establishing a new market for Capita Symonds as the

solution is relevant to all UK local authorities

Citation

An innovative and self-financing solution to our Council

partner's dual efficiency challenges, generating significant

financial savings and helping to meet its carbon reduction

targets. This is a model that is relevant across UK local

government and is an excellent example of how we can

'create' new markets and revenue streams for ourselves,

another worthy recipient of our Discretionary Award for

Innovation.

Nominated by: Simon Butt, Salford