A 12-month trial which will alter the dimming regime of around 80% of Devon’s residential streetlights will get underway next month (April).
It follows our pilot last year in Abbotskerswell, Holcombe Rogus, Kingskerswell and Sidmouth, where 550 streetlights underwent earlier switch-off times and additional dimming.
The trial is possible thanks to the upgraded technology of our Central Management System, which allows adjustments to be made remotely to around 80% of Devon’s 80,000 streetlights.
The council has calculated that this change will achieve a reduction of circa 225 tonnes of carbon per annum. At current energy prices this proposal could save DCC as much as £300k per year.
Devon councillors agreed in December to rollout the scheme to all areas where residential streetlights can be remotely adjusted.
It will be introduced in phases over the first couple months of the trial, starting in Exeter, before moving on to the previous pilot areas (Abbotskerswell, Holcombe Rogus, Kingskerswell and Sidmouth) followed by other market towns such as Ashburton, Barnstaple, Crediton and Honiton, and then rural areas.
The scheme will mean that in Exeter, residential streetlights will be dimmed to 40% output from 9:30pm – 12:30am, before being switched off from 12:30am until 5:30am, and returning to 40% output from 5:30am-6:30am.
In market towns, they will be dimmed to 40% output from 8:30pm-midnight, then switched off from midnight to 5:30am, with 40% output from 5:30am-6:30am.
Rural areas will see residential streetlights dimmed to 40% from 7pm to midnight, switched off from midnight to 5:30am, with 40% output again from 5:30am-6:30am.
There will be no change to the current policy on streetlighting on main roads.
The council has worked closely with Devon and Cornwall Police throughout the small-scale pilot earlier last year, and in developing this 12-month trial. If Police raise any safety concerns over the lighting levels during the trial, they can be reviewed and, where necessary, altered via the Devon Central Management System.
Councillor Stuart Hughes, our cabinet member for Highway Management, said:
“The initial pilot of these changes to streetlight dimming hours and output has provided us with a good test bed. There was positive feedback to that pilot and that has helped inform the trial over the next 12 months. The central management system of our streetlighting provides us with the opportunity to extend the trial over a much wider area of the county, taking in over 60,000 of our residential streetlights. This provides us with reduced carbon emissions and lower energy bills but ensures that safety isn’t compromised.”
The council first introduced part-night streetlighting in residential areas in 2009 and its current policy has been in place since 2019.
As well as part-night lighting of residential streetlights, the roll-out of LED lighting and dimming of streetlights on main roads has successfully reduced energy use, carbon emissions and costs, while keeping the public safe, said the council.
Devon CC streetlights used around 12million kWh of electricity in 2023/24, compared to around 31million kWh in 2015/16, which equates to an annual £6million saving.
PIC-DEVON CC
