Dublin Mid-West Sinn Féin councillor, Derren Ó Bradaigh has welcomed a recent response to an official question poised seeking details on the progress to upgrade our public lighting system to the far more energy efficient light emitting diode (LED) lights.
Ó Brádaigh, a councillor for the Lucan-Palmerstown-Fonthill local electoral area said “The public street light transition programme began approximately 7 years ago and to date, the council has upgraded 17,500 of the existing low-pressure sodium (SOX) public lamps to the far more energy efficient LED lights, however 8,000 of these SOX public lights remain. Challenges have arisen during the most recent phase, as these older lights are not compliant with current regulations. Resolving this issue with ESB Networks has been slow and has impacted on South Dublin County Council’s own upgrade schedule.
“Meeting targets is not only in the interest of the taxpaying public but importantly forms part of the council’s own commitments on climate action plans. LED light bulbs use up to 85% less electricity and emit minimum heat waste, converting this energy to light instead, so the benefits for our community and wider society are there for all to see.
“I have taken a keen interest in monitoring the ongoing progress on this programme raising questions intermittently at area committee meetings. My understanding now is that the council have been working with ESBN on this issue and finally signed an agreement just recently on how they can jointly address the technical and safety issues presented by these lights. The council have now informed me that they can move forward again with the programme in conjunction with ESBN.
“To test the agreed new way of working with the ESBN, the council have agreed to progress upgrades in three estates across the county in locations that cover all manner of issues which they are likely to face as they upgrade their remaining stock. These three pilot estates include works to Ashwood in Clondalkin, Redwood in Kilnamanagh and Rathfarnham Wood. Work in this regard will commence in April and be progressed over coming months.
“Regarding the continued maintenance of the remaining SOX fittings, these are now obsolete, and it is extremely difficult to source parts to maintain them. To address this problem, the council have been able to harvest lamps and other maintenance parts from the old SOX fittings that are retired as part of the upgrade/replacement as the programme progresses. As a priority, work can be accelerated to repair all the outages that are reported”.
