Public lighting and electricity demand control

While the common denominator of any initiative to control electricity demand (MDE) in the field of public lighting is the desire to limit municipal energy consumption, meeting this challenge alone is not enough to define the objective of the approach.

For example, can we consider the energy savings generated by the installation of a dual-circuit system on a main road, enabling one luminaire out of two to be switched on when traffic levels fall, to be satisfactory if, at the same time, the light produced does not meet the uniformity, illuminance and luminance levels required for road safety? Taking this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, it would probably have been safer and much more economical to switch off the light. This example, among many others observed, clearly illustrates the incoherence of an MDE approach aimed solely at limiting electricity consumption.

The MDE approach we are now going to present is designed to meet the energy management challenges specific to the current context of road and urban street lighting. It will focus on lighting requirements.

Following a description of the main lines of approach to defining, implementing and sustaining this approach, an illustration will show the results that the method has enabled us to envisage in three concrete cases corresponding to distinct contexts.