Romania is in a privileged situation from the perspective of investments in smart public lighting because, thanks to the multitude of non-reimbursable funds, it has access to the latest technologies.
“We are in a privileged position because Romania has access to significant amounts of money that have already placed it quite high in terms of technology at the European level. This is because while LED systems have been installed in Europe ever since they were invented, and in some countries, the same systems are still in operation, in Romania we introduced from the very beginning mature LED technologies and equipment that can function for many decades”, he said George Zaharia, Head of Traffic Division, Flash Lighting Services, at the “Smart Cities” conference, organized by Energynomics.
Quality public lighting is that which is perceived by the citizens as an extension of the one in the houses, not only from the perspective of the technical elements that make it up but from the perspective of an entire ensemble that takes into account examples of good practices from the rest of the world. For such investments, “funding continues to catch up”, and local public authorities develop new projects.
According to Zaharia, a smart public lighting project in Tulcea generated electricity consumption savings of 65%. This reduced consumption was achieved by only two factors, namely the installation of LEDs and the use of the dimming function.
“Until two years ago, all over the world, the reference moment for turning on the street lights was sunset and turning the lights off at sunrise, but now, with all the pressure from the price of energy, the time schedule of public lighting is reduced all over the world. Some municipalities even require public lights to be switched on half an hour later and off half an hour earlier. Well, the energy saving obtained from a few minutes plus or minus is insignificant compared to the dimming option of modern lighting fixtures”, said Zaharia.
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Once the whole country will have smart public lighting, the question will arise of how to charge additional services associated with lighting, such as charging electric cars, video surveillance, and various other smart solutions (sensors, communications, local network, control etc.). A variant would be that of a classic concession, as it happens in the case of public parking lots, public lighting or state-owned land. Another option would be by means of service contracts through which all the collected value is collected by the town hall.
The “Smart Cities” conference was organized by Energynomics, with the support of our partners, among them ABB, ENGIE Romania, Finder, Flash Lighting Services, Photomate, REI Group, SIXT.