Edison Next promotes LED technology for public lighting

At Edison Next, we continue to advance on the path of leading the energy transition, and with it, helping our clients and society achieve energy efficiency. One of our biggest commitments in recent years has been promoting sustainability through the renovation of public lighting, because at Edison Next we firmly believe in the benefits and advantages that both public institutions and citizens themselves obtain from these initiatives. Until a few years ago, public lighting seemed like a perfected service; however, the arrival and development of LED technology has completely changed its reality and revealed its obsolescence. Today, the use of LED systems offers a series of clear advantages, mainly in terms of greater sustainability and convenience in service implementation. For example, state-of-the-art light sources last longer and consume less energy compared to conventional systems such as incandescent, halogen, or fluorescent bulbs, ensuring energy and emissions savings, as well as a considerable reduction in the costs associated with the service itself. Ultimately, the greater efficiency of LEDs is clearly reflected in the numbers: incandescent bulbs dissipate 90% of the energy consumed as heat, fluorescent bulbs around 80%, while LED light sources can convert up to 50% of the electrical energy they receive into light, and their simple introduction can lead to energy savings of over 70%. Moreover, the World Bank recently calculated that a massive rollout of projects to improve the efficiency of public lighting systems would reduce CO2 emissions equivalent to those generated by 8.5 million cars in a year. On the other hand, in addition to minimizing the environmental impact generated by public lighting, LEDs also make this service more manageable. This is mainly because they have a significantly longer lifespan than sodium or mercury vapor lamps, which significantly reduces the need, frequency, and cost of maintenance tasks, and they also have almost instant on and cool-down times. The benefits of LEDs in terms of visual comfort are also not negligible, bringing with them an improvement in the aesthetic perception of city spaces and the possibility of maximizing their urban connotations. The arrival of LED technology not only guarantees levels of efficiency and performance that were unthinkable until recently, but it has also become a fundamental driver for the development of intelligent solutions with high added value for the city and its citizens. In fact, LEDs are inherently “digital”: they can be easily integrated with control and modulation systems for the luminous flux emitted by the luminaires, thus opening new possibilities for the intelligent management of public lighting and ensuring greater energy savings without any reduction in service quality. The interconnected lighting network also lends itself to a wide variety of applications, making public lighting “smart.” For example, they can integrate video surveillance or urban air quality control services; monitor vehicle flows in the city in real time and interact with the urban traffic regulation system; integrate services for efficient parking management, pay-per-parking, or electric vehicle charging; and become information and entertainment points for people. For all these reasons, given the versatility and clear advantages offered by LED technology, at Edison Next we are firm advocates and promoters of these systems and are committed to developing public lighting solutions based on this technology. Examples of this are the numerous projects we have already developed in Spain, always in close collaboration with public and local administrations.