The Government approves raising the efficiency of public lighting as part of its anti-energy crisis measures

These measures will be voluntary from their publication and mandatory for projects that start on January 1 The new regulation will affect public lighting, which includes roads and streets The Government expects to save up to 67% of energy thanks to the package of measures that it has just approved the Council of Ministers to deal with the energy crisis. Among other decisions, the executive raises the minimum efficiency requirements for public lighting. Specifically, these minimum efficiency requirements increase by 119% for functional lighting and 163% for ambient lighting in a context marked by the complicated energy situation after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With these measures, which also include the installation of new bulbs, the Executive calculates that savings of between 39 and 67% could be achieved, according to sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. Functional lighting includes lighting installations for roads, highways, highways or urban roads, while ambient lighting includes those that are placed on low-height supports, generally in urban areas for lighting pedestrian streets, shops, sidewalks, parks or gardens. In addition, the labeling system has been updated through letters, so that only the most efficient is graded “A” or “B”. With this, the Government seeks to give the end user more realistic information on the energy efficiency of its installation and boost savings. The new regulation will affect public lighting (roads and streets), which includes that of administrations and agents that illuminate public spaces, such as some concessionaire roads. These measures will be voluntary from their publication and mandatory for projects that start on January 1. Those that have started before have a maximum year to complete. The Executive is working to modernize the regulation of outdoor lighting and hopes to be able to approve it as a whole in the coming months. With the aim of advancing energy efficiency, technology is included LED, which had not been included until now, and energy efficiency standards are doubled. The More Energy Security Plan Last week, the executive already approved the More Energy Security Plan (+SE), which, among other points, included a program replacement of public lighting endowed with 100 million euros and a new regulation to be more efficient in lighting with 100% reimbursable credits. According to the minister of the branch, Teresa Ribera, it is important that the administrations make an effort to reduce their consumption own energy, both in its facilities and the consumption that depends on them. In this sense, she has pointed out that it should be each administration that decides where and when to channel savings and that it is important that they do so transparently.