Shanghai Pudong has completed the retrofit of 13,000 street lights

Street lights are called the eyes of the city; they are not only a single lighting tool at night but also highlight the city's vitality and even its fashion. Nowadays, walking on some streets in Pudong, you might inadvertently discover that street lights are brighter than before.

Recently, it was learned from the Shanghai Pudong New Area Construction and Transportation Commission that since the new area launched the LED retrofitting of road lighting luminaires and the upgrade of control equipment in 2021, 13,000 street lights have been retrofitted so far , further reducing energy consumption while ensuring quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of road lighting facilities.

After the street lights were transferred to the new district's management in 2016, the new district has approximately 135,000 street lights. Statistics show that 52.8% of these have been operating for over 10 years; 28% have been operating for over 15 years. The old high-pressure sodium lamps (HPS) have a high maintenance rate, severe lumen depreciation due to excessive service life, and high overall power consumption, making it difficult to meet national energy conservation and emission reduction requirements. In addition to the existing 22,000 LED street lights, the remaining 113,000 street lights need to be replaced.

To accelerate the energy-saving retrofit of road lighting and help achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, last year, the " Shanghai Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting Energy-Saving Retrofit of Road Lighting Facilities (2021-2023)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Three-Year Action Plan") was released . It is reported that there are approximately 825,400 road lighting facilities in the entire city , with an annual electricity consumption of about 780 million kWh . Among them, about 701,400 light sources are High-pressure sodium lamps (HPS), accounting for 85% of the total. According to the plan, all will be replaced with LED luminaires.

According to a relevant official from the Municipal Urban Comprehensive Management Affairs Center, LED street lights not only have a long lifespan and high Color rendering index (CRI), but also consume less electricity than High-pressure sodium lamp (HPS) under equivalent Luminous efficacy. Analysis shows that after three years of renovation, the city can save approximately 350 million kWh of electricity annually. Based on the conversion of 3,000 kWh equaling 1 ton of standard coal, this is equivalent to saving 117,000 tons of standard coal annually and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 350,000 tons. Since the service life of LED Luminaire is 4-6 times that of High-pressure sodium lamp (HPS), it can effectively reduce the failure rate of Road lighting, lower the repair request rate and complaint rate for Road lighting; the Color rendering index (CRI) of new LED Luminaire is 3-4 times that of High-pressure sodium lamp (HPS), which can effectively improve visual clarity, enhance Road lighting quality, increase Road traffic safety, and reduce traffic accidents.

Addressing issues such as aging street lights in Pudong New Area, the district initiated pilot measures. The Construction and Transportation Commission implemented multiple coordinated actions, starting the replacement of street lights last November. Through energy-saving retrofitting of road lighting facilities, the problem of dim roads is being gradually resolved, responding to public demands.

"Currently, within the new district's inner ring, including the Expo and Qiantan areas, as well as the expressways and main/secondary roads between the inner and middle rings, LED street lights have been replaced on a total of 166 roads, amounting to 13,000 units," introduced a representative from the Pudong New Area Public Utilities Management Center. The project involves replacing existing High-pressure sodium lamp (HPS) luminaires with LED Luminaire fixtures, while also upgrading lightning protection junction boxes and installing single-lamp terminal controllers as ancillary facilities.

Through this renovation, the district road lighting management platform, utilizing CAT-1 communication technology, achieves intelligent supervision with controllable and reachable single-lamp control. On one hand, it enables precise dimming based on varying conditions such as pedestrian flow, vehicle flow, early night, and late night, thereby reducing energy consumption; on the other hand, it enhances problem detection capabilities and precise alarm localization, achieving a shift from traditional patrol-based maintenance to targeted repair methods. "While ensuring quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of road lighting facilities, annual energy consumption is expected to decrease by approximately 37%."

据悉，按照计划，到2023年底新区将完成剩余10万盏路灯改造，基本实现全区区管道路照明LED灯具全覆盖，在保障道路照明设施提质增效的同时降低耗能。同时，针对林荫大道、高架下等特殊路段，尤其在暴雨等恶劣天气影响下路面光照度受影响问题，新区建交委已试点安装光照度感应器，探索恶劣天气下的开灯亮暗标准和开关灯策略，提高应急情况下的应急处置能力，确保安全出行。