In the last few years, the municipality of Milan has replaced all the street lights in the city: more than 140,000 luminaires equipped with discharge lamps have been replaced by others equipped with LEDs. This intervention has been carried out by a2a.
Per capita consumption has been reduced by half (from 87 kWh to 42 kWh) and , in general, total consumption has been reduced from 114 million KWh per year to only 55 million kWh, bringing Milan among the European cities with the lowest average consumption.
In practice, the city is currently saving 52% in energy consumption and 31% on the amount of the ‘bill for street lighting’.
The amount of the investment was 38 million euros allocated, not only to the replacement of both the old luminaires with others equipped with LED technology and 500 control panels, but also to the installation of remote lighting management systems for fault detection.
The use of LED technology means a clear improvement in terms of efficiency, performance and safety as their average life is much longer (even 5 times longer lasting).
Thus at least 10,000 lamps less will be blown each year and lamp replacement operations will be reduced (-50,000). This avoids the production of over 9 tons of WEEE (electrical and electronic waste) every year.
In addition, the new remote lighting management systems allows real-time monitoring of the operating status of the installation allowing much faster interventions.
Energy saving means respect for the environment: 52% of electricity less means saving more than 11,000 TOE (tonnes of oil equivalent) and a reduction in CO2 emissions equivalent to 23,650 tons.
The economic benefits are noteworthy: the Municipality of Milan saves over 13 million euros per year with respect to the previous cost of 42 million euros per year, which guarantees an annual saving of 31%.
The entire lighting project has been carried out with LITESTAR 4D.