Local services
The details of the planned street lighting upgrades were announced by the Mayor of Debrecen László Papp, at a press conference on the 11th of May, 2023.
When adopting Debrecen’s budget this year, the mayor said that a key priority was to use development funds to achieve sustainability goals.
Therefore, the 2023 budget, following the city management concept adopted in 2019, includes the financing of several developments – such as the energy renovation of prefabricated houses – that serve sustainability goals.
One of the most significant of these developments is the modernisation of Debrecen’s street lighting system to make it more environmentally friendly. This means that the old-style, energy-intensive luminaires used so far will be replaced by “smart” LED luminaires in the city over the coming years.
Debrecen currently has around 25,000 luminaires as part of its street lighting system, of which around 6,000 will be replaced this year. The work started on the 9th of May, and the replacement of this total will continue until the end of this year. The city is spending approximately HUf 1.6 billion on this improvement this year. Given current energy prices, this relatively high investment will pay for itself in just 3.5 years.
In the first phase of the replacement of the 6,000 luminaires, 830 new LED luminaires will be installed in various locations throughout the city. They will be installed mainly along busy roads – Böszörményi Road, Klaipeda Street, Sumen Street, Mikepércsi Street up to the five-way roundabout – and mostly in residential areas – Menyhárt József Square, Borbíró Square, the service road on Doberdó Street – and on Egyetem tér (University Square). The first phase of work is scheduled to last five weeks.
The replacements will be carried out outside the street lighting during peak hours, between 8.15 a.m and 3.45 p.m. This will obviously involve traffic restrictions during the day, so people in the vicinity of the work areas should be patient and use caution.
The new LED luminaires will be 21st-century “smart” luminaires, which means that their brightness can be adjusted and controlled according to the prevailing lighting conditions. For example, at dusk, they will operate at a different capacity than at midnight. This will provide additional energy savings. The operation and control of the lights will be carried out by Debrecen Városüzemeltető Kft., which will also coordinate the further work.
As László Papp said, this year’s development programme includes the construction of a new city operation centre with the cooperation of Debrecen City Operation Ltd., which will also help to control the street lighting.
The mayor also mentioned that the city’s street lighting system consumes 8.2 million kilowatt-hours per year. The aim is to reduce this by around a third with this year’s development. The installed power of the lights currently in operation is 2,100 kilowatt-hours, and this is planned to be reduced by 700 kilowatt-hours. Thanks to the city’s green thinking, this upgrade will also reduce carbon emissions by 700 tonnes.
Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu
