BATHURST’S street lighting will be upgraded to LED technology under a new project to be rolled out this year.
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The LED lights have already been trialled in a number of Bathurst streets since August to test the quality and clarity of the lighting.
Bathurst Regional Council has been working with Essential Energy to co-ordinate the lighting upgrade and general manager David Sherley said there would be a number of benefits to ratepayers.
“Council has been working with Essential Energy to put in LED lights and potentially have smart meters to reduce the amount of electricity we use,” he said.
“We have been trialling LED since August and September in Cummings, Henderson, Veness and Clements streets and also one block each on Hope, Rankin, Lambert and Bentinck streets.
“It provides much better lighting and council will now look at replacing many of the existing mercury vapour and high-pressure sodium luminaires across the city.”
Council expects the upgrade to cut thousands of its annual electricity bill and the smart technology will allow more control over lighting than ever.
The LED lights do not require as much maintenance as the existing street lights and can even have motions sensors installed to automatically switch off when no-one is around.
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Councillors were given an update on the progress of the LED rollout and council’s contractual arrangements with Essential Energy during a confidential meeting in December.
The street lighting upgrade is another project being pursued as part of Bathurst’s move to become a Smart City.
Bathurst has been identified as one of seven key emerging innovation precincts across NSW in a report by the NSW Innovation and Productivity Council (IPC).
The research report, titled NSW Innovation Precincts: Lessons from International experience, listed Bathurst alongside Wagga Wagga, Wollongong, Macquarie Park (Sydney), Ultimo (Sydney), Newcastle and Armidale as the state’s innovation leaders.