Mildura joins forces with 15 other regional Victorian councils to cut street lighting energy and maintenance costs

Sixteen local governments across north, west and central Victoria, have joined forces to develop a combined submission to the Federal Government to upgrade 23,000 streetlights with energy efficient technology.
The Lighting the Regions project has the potential to save Mildura Rural City Council in the order of $8.3 million over 20 years*.

The submission is a combined effort between Central Goldfields, Hepburn, Pyrenees, Loddon, Swan Hill, Gannawarra, Mount Alexander, Greater Bendigo, Buloke, Ararat, Northern Grampians, Hindmarsh, Horsham, Yarriambiack, West Wimmera and Mildura Councils and the Central Victoria Greenhouse Alliance and Wimmera Mallee Sustainability Alliance.

Mildura Rural City Council’s Environmental Sustainability Portfolio Councillor Judi Harris said the organisation is always looking for ways to reduce energy costs to get the best value for ratepayers.

“Participating in the Lighting the Regions project would provide us with an opportunity to change our streetlights and create significant savings that may not have been possible on our own,” Cr Harris said.
“These are savings that will directly benefit ratepayers and the broader community and can be used for other local purposes.

“There are approximately 4,289 streetlights in our Council area that would be suitable to upgrade which currently incur significant, ongoing electricity and maintenance costs every year.”

Central Victoria Greenhouse Alliance Chair, Karen Corr said upgrading streetlights to date has been a challenging process and that Lighting the Regions was about local governments taking on this challenge and combining resources to reduce energy costs.

“The proposed project would run over three years and will see streetlight globes and fittings throughout regional Victoria upgraded to new models that require up to 68% less electricity to run.

“For years people across these regions have been replacing lights in their homes with energy efficient bulbs to save money, but every night in streets and parks they see thousands of old, inefficient, street lights switched on.

“We have put forward the strongest case possible for what we believe will be the largest regional street light changeover project in Australian history,” Ms Corr said.

Street lighting currently costs the region $2.2 million dollars each year in electricity and maintenance. Given increases in energy and maintenance costs, this will increase to $6 million per year by 2032, a total cost of $73.23 million over that period.*

“A successful outcome for this application would see reduced costs for these regional and small rural shires in the order of $41 million*, freeing up much needed funds for other important infrastructure works.

“The participating local governments cover almost half of Victoria and we are pleased that we have been able to submit an application to the Federal Government through the Community Energy Efficiency Program to assist with funds for this $9 million dollar project,” said Ms Corr.

She said the project would provide direct benefits back to communities, some that have been hard hit by drought, floods and fire over the last ten years.

Ms Corr said Lighting the Regions is an opportunity to implement a once in a generation change to street lighting that will save local governments significantly, allowing them to provide better, cost effective services to our communities.

“We are looking forward to the application being well received by the Federal Government,” said Ms Corr.
She said a successful Lighting the Regions application will require the 16 participating local governments to approve and allocate three million dollars collectively over three years to implement the project.

*NOTE: Costs and savings are indicative and based on assumptions such as a 5% increase in energy and maintenance, compounded over the next 20 years, this is considered a conservative estimate as energy prices are likely to increase by more than this.

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