More than 9,500 public and street lights in Darwin are being converted to a smart lighting system that Council says will reduce costs and emissions by up to 47 per cent.

City of Darwin hasn’t let COVID-19 restrictions hamper the roll out of its Public Lighting Upgrade program, which commenced in April 2019 and  will upgrade all lighting  to LED and connect it to a smart system that automatically switches on and off and reports faults.

Council says the improvements will provide better lighting, reduce power costs, halve emissions, improve efficiency and save ratepayers more than $600,000 a year.

The smart controls enable Council to monitor the energy use of individual lights as well as faults and operating times.

City of Darwin says this means that faults can be reported immediately and investigated remotely without the need to deploy staff until initial checks are done.

Lord Mary Kon Vatskalis says the smart lighting system complements the Smart Darwin technology rolled out across the city last year and sets a national benchmark.

“Most of the old lighting system had to be manually adjusted at different times of the year,” Cr Vatskalis said in a statement.

“Sunrise and sunset are at different times throughout the year and the new technology means the lighting system automatically senses whether street lights need to be off or on.”

Council aims to complete the program by the end of the 2021 financial year.

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