Few figures on french public lighting
Outdoor lighting electricity consumption, around 5 TW, represents only 1% of total electricity production in France. But its stands for 48% of electricity consumption for collectivities and 18% of their consumptions for all kind of energies. This public service represents 37% of the electricity bill of the municipalities.
In France, 9 million lamps are lightened between 3 500 hours and 4 300 hours by year for an installed power of around 1 260 MW. Analysis of installation shows large needs of renovation; more than half of the park is made of outdated and with high energy consumption material. Even if public lighting is on during off-peak hours (with low CO2 emissions), it anyway participates to the electricity peak consumption at the beginning of the night during winter. The majority of installations must be renovated and efficient technologies are available: possible consumption reduction is huge. (data: Ademe 2010).
European regulation for public lighting
EN13201 norm details recommended lighting level for public lighting according to the type of road (urban, rural…) and to factors such as traffic density, speed, presence of other lights (public equipment’s, shops…)
EN13201 norm is to be taken into account with durable development for collectivities. Exploitation cost for public lighting is made of two kinds of costs: maintenance (lamp changing, luminaries cleaning…) and electricity consumption.
