George Town Street Light Upgrades

Northern Councils LED Streetlight Change-over - George Town Project

The change-over to energy efficient street lighting will start in the George Town Council area in July 2017.

George Town will be changing just over 500 of its residential area street lights from 80W mercury vapour lights to 14W LEDs under the Northern Lights street lighting project.

The project will result in significant cost savings to council through reduced operation and maintenance costs and will save the equivalent of up to 514 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

George Town will be the next council area in Tasmania to make the switch to energy efficient lighting following the successful installation of LEDs in Launceston and Meander Valley.

It takes crews from ETS Electrical Services only around 5 minutes to change each street light, meaning the works in George Town should be completed in around one month and there will be minimal, if any disruption to traffic flow.

Progress of George Town’s and other councils’ installations can be tracked via a progress tracker on the Northern Lights Project website at www.northernlightstas.com.au.

Other facts about George Town LED change-over

•  George Town Council has allocated $300,000 for this project.

•  The 80w MVs are generally the common white lights in George Town streets. The replacement 14w lights will have similar lighting properties, so there will be no big changes to lighting levels, but some improvement in the way light is directed on the street and footpath.

•  Savings from installing lights are expected to be $48,000 annually.

•  Council will own the lights installed. TasNetworks will still maintain lights as they have done in the past. Faulty lights can be repaired by calling TasNetworks on 132004 or Council Offices on 63828800

•  The remaining  250 lights not changed over in this project will remain in TasNetwork ownership.

•  Expected life of lights and fittings is between 10 - 20 years.

 By co-operating with other northern Councils George Town Council has received competitive pricing in purchasing, installation and running costs that could not be obtained by undertaking a similar project ourselves.