Lighting up Western Sydney

LIGHT YEARS AHEAD

The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils Ltd (WSROC) represents the interests of Western Sydney Councils – Blacktown, Blue Mountains, The New City of Canterbury Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield City, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Parramatta and Penrith.

Street lighting accounts for around 55% of WSROC’s energy bills, making it an important infrastructure area to review and find efficient solutions for. Mercury vapour lights, many of which have been in place in Western Sydney since the 1970’s, are costly to run and maintain. The target of The Light Years Ahead Project was to replace approximately 15,000 Mercury Vapour street lights across 136 suburbs of Sydney with low emission LED lights.

THE CHALLENGES OF LARGE-SCALE REPLACEMENT

Upon being chosen to carry out this large-scale replacement, Sylvania identified one key challenge – ramping up production levels in order to meet the strict deadlines of product supply.

Additionally, there was the need to ensure the new lights met performance standards of the existing fittings at the lowest price, as well as custom variations to the StreetLED model to allow for faster installation. Facilitating stakeholder negotiations and reaching agreement to the proposed solution, Sylvania rapidly modified the existing LED street lights to manufacture the StreetLED 22W.

The development of the StreetLED 22W was crucial in meeting the strict deadlines of the project, with Sylvania modifying existing fittings to suit WSROC’s requirement for a faster installation time.

Not only did the modified design allow for easier and quicker install, but the energy performance sees rate payers experience better light for less power consumption. There are projected estimated savings in energy costs of around $1.08m a year for councils and an estimated saving in energy efficiency of up to 60%.

ONE TEAM ONE VISION

The Light Years Ahead Project had councils, energy providers and Sylvania working together to find a cost effective and environmentally viable solution that would benefit the community for years to come. This project proved that a measurable benefit can be achieved from a sustainability project.