New South Wales

• Council actions
• Regulatory and market structure
• State Developments
• Stakeholders
• Funding opportunities

City of Sydney LED trial
As part of the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, the city is planning to trial LED street lights. Expressions of interest have been sought for candidates who have experience in development, supply and installation of LED street lighting.

Expressions of interest for the City of Sydney LED trial closed in December 2008. The project attracted a high response rate from lighting industry representatives, many of whom have gone on to provide additional information to the City to assist in the final decision making process. Applications will be evaluated and the City is expected to choose an industry partner(s) to complete the trial over numerous sites.

More information will be made available as the trial progresses.

Street Lighting Improvement Program
The Street Lighting Improvement Program (SLI Program) was established by the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) in 2003.

An important focus of the program has been working with EnergyAustralia (EA) – a major NSW distribution business – and the New South Wales Government to implement a number of technology, service and policy improvements. Currently 34 councils served by EA are involved in the SLI Program, which accounts for over 90 per cent of the street lights in EA's service territory.

The AGO has published a case study of a technology trial implemented under the SLI Program which illustrates the effectiveness of cooperation between councils, EA and the SLI Program.

Project Update (June 2007): In 2006 the SLI Program was awarded $4.2m by the New South Wales Government's Energy Savings Fund to accelerate the deployment of energy efficient street lighting luminaires in the 29 local government areas.

The project involves the replacement of up to 27,000 old mercury vapour lights on main roads with more energy efficient high pressure sodium luminaires and the installation of up to 15,000 T5 and/or compact fluorescent luminaires on residential roads.

A project summary has been released by the NSW former Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability. For more information about the SLI Program contact the Program Manager, Graham Mawer, of Next Energy, on 02 8966 9444.

Coffs Harbour Energy Efficient Street Lighting Programme

Between 2000–05 Coffs Harbour City Council, a CCP participant, developed and implemented its Energy Efficient Street Lighting Programme.

The project was funded by the Coffs Harbour Environment Levy, Country Energy, and a grant from the then NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA).

As a result, in 2004 Coffs Harbour successfully retrofitted its entire public lighting stock with high pressure sodium (50W HPS), becoming the first council in Australia to install energy efficient street lighting across its whole jurisdiction.

In recognition of Coffs Harbour's many environmental achievements, it received one of the top awards at the United Nations Association of Australia's 2007 World Environment Day Awards.

For more information, see the project update (June 2007), which details the financial and greenhouse savings to date, or the Australian Greenhouse Office's case study on Coffs Harbour's Energy Efficient Street Lighting Programme.

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In NSW, the vast majority of streetlight assets are owned by the relevant distribution network service provider (DNSP). NSW operates under full retail contestability (FRC) for the electricity requirements.

Market Structure: Councils pay four types of charges for public lighting:

• Charges for the supply of electricity to streetlights in its area. Under FRC, the supply of electricity is fully contestable. This means that council can choose which energy retailer supplies lights in its area.
• Charges for installation of 'on-system' lighting assets (i.e. streetlighting assets mounted on DNSP-owned poles). The design and construction of these assets is partially contestable, which means that it may be done by someone other than the DNSP, subject to the DNSP's approval. The DNSP may also compete for this work.
• The operation, maintenance and replacement (OMR) of on-system assets is non-contestable, which means that councils must pay DNSP-determined charges for their OMR costs. The DNSP-determined charges are set to signal economic costs of provision, consider customer impacts and how the impact of any significant price changes can be mitigated. DNSPs apply to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART) to set their prices, and IPART may accept the proposal or require an alternative.
• Charges for 'off-system' lighting assets. Off-system assets are not mounted on DNSP-owned poles, i.e. lights connected to an underground distribution network. There is full contestability for these assets, which means that council can determine their design, construction and OMR, including by contracting out any of these functions to the DNSP or gifting assets to the DNSP.

Although OMR for on-system assets is non-contestable, councils still exercise a degree of choice; they must either choose light types from the DNSP's standard menu or negotiate an off-menu option, which can be done at any time. Typically, however, a DNSP's standard menu does not include energy efficient lighting products. To use energy efficient products, councils must negotiate with their DNSPs to go off-menu, which poses additional analytical and organisational costs. Thus, in excluding an efficient technology from its standard menu, a DNSP may create a significant barrier to its uptake.

Regulatory Environment: The charges for which DNSPs offer lighting services to councils are subject to regulatory oversight by IPART. Its duty is to ensure that lighting services are offered on fair and reasonable terms, which it fulfils primarily by conducting public reviews of DNSP proposals to increase prices. In 2007, all three DNSPs in NSW submitted proposals for price increases. IPART has released a final decision on EnergyAustralia's proposal and Country Energy's proposal. Integral Energy’s proposal has closed for comment but submissions are available for viewing. In the past, IPART also regulated metrology, including for services provided on unmetred supply. (Most street lights, especially on minor roads, are on unmetred supply). On 1 January 2007, however, responsibility for all metrology procedures passed to the National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO).

The other key aspect of the regulatory environment is the NSW Public Lighting Code, which took effect from January 2006. This Code clarified the relationship between DNSPs - the providers of public lighting services - and their customers, i.e. councils. In terms of sustainable public lighting, the main relevance of the Code is that it states that customers may ask DNSPs to add specific technologies to their Standard Luminaire list or equivalent; that DNSPs must give reasonable consideration to such requests; and that energy efficiency considerations are a legitimate factor in such requests. This provides a basis for councils to push their DNSPs to add energy efficient technologies to their Standard Luminaire lists or equivalent, thereby removing a barrier to the uptake of sustainable public lighting products.

For more information about the benefits of the NSW Public Lighting Code for councils, please see Warren Taylor's article New Public Lighting Code (Local Government and Shires Association, 2006). For more information about the NSW Public Lighting Code and the regulatory arrangements in NSW, please contact the Department of Water and Energy via email.

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The Australian Energy Regulator releases a draft report
The decision establishes, among other things, the basis for determining NSW and ACT distribution network charges in the 2009-2014 regulatory control period. It is the first of many reviews to occur Australia wide and is expected to be completed by 31 March 2009. Comments on this review close early 2009. Pricing and service levels have been one of the barriers to the installation of energy efficient lighting meaning that once an agreement is reached the roll out of energy efficient lighting is more likely.  For more detail on the review see AER's Explanatory Statement.

Update 26 May 2008:
Distribution business EnergyAustralia has technically accepted both the 42W compact fluorescent the T5 linear fluorescent in recent months. The 42W CFL is their preferred energy efficient replacement lamp with a proviso that Councils are allowed to choose the T5 flourescent as an alternative. Some councils have chosen the 42W CFL as their standard for new developments.

The Street Lighting Improvement Program has grown to 34 councils, covering 94% of Energy Australia’s lighting.

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NSW Government Environment Grants and Funding
This outlines the various grants programs offered by the NSW Government to support sustainability initiatives. There may be potential to apply for funding for sustainable public lighting projects under Round 2 of the Public Facilities Program. Applications are due by Thursday 30 April 2009.