Dim thinking on street lighting from Feds

There are fears public safety will be compromised as street lighting costs could more than double under a new Federal energy draft, meaning the possibility of dimmer streets at night.

The City of Sydney urged the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) to take another look at its energy Draft Determination, which would cause a rise in electricity charges of 150 per cent for Local Councils.

‘The AER approach will lock Sydney into existing modes of centralised energy supply and distribution, resulting in cost increases for the City and its communities in the longer term,’ Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

Council has also accused the AER of using outdated thinking to tackle current energy issues.

The Draft Determination is not in line with Council’s long-term environmental sustainability goals, said Ms Moore.

‘It smacks of 20th century infrastructure and thinking for 21st century challenges.’

Ms Moore said the rise in electricity costs would penalise the City of Sydney for trialling Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting in streetlights.

‘Not only are the increases covering the next five years a massive impost, we face the prospect of paying even more because we are utilising a more greenhouse gas efficient style of street lighting,’ Ms Moore said.

“This is because under the current policy, local councils are not able to access the discount mechanism if they use Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting rather than fluorescent lighting…in other words we are being penalised for taking the initiative on environmental sustainability.”

A spokesperson for the AER said they were only part way through the process of writing the Determination, and submissions by Local Councils will be considered.

‘We’ve received the [City of Sydney] submission, it’s being taken into account as part of our process, and the other submissions that were received will be fully considered ‘ in finalising our Determination, which is due out on the 30th of April,’ the AER spokesperson said.

Councillor John McInerney said if changes were not made, it was likely the financial cost would ultimately fall on the taxpayer.

‘We’ve got to balance our books and pay for street lighting. The obvious requirement is that we have to charge the ratepayers for that,’ Mr McInerney said.

Mr McInerney said the AER should move away from the traditional system of large centralised generating plants and investigate localised generation.

‘They should take communities out of the big grid and pull them back to cheaper and more localised generating sources,’ he said.