Bandung City – optimising energy and cost with new LED streetlighting
New LED streetlights have enabled significant financial and energy savings for Bandung City.
Bandung City is the fourth largest city in Indonesia, with a population of over 2,444,000 inhabitants. Also known as Parijs van Java or Paris of Java Island, Bandung City has a rich historical heritage, including several well-preserved historical buildings and areas.
Urban lighting plays a key role in highlighting this heritage and creating an attractive city landscape. Located only 2 hours’ drive from Jakarta, Bandung is looking to increase its tourist traffic. “It is important for us to develop streetlighting that brings out the characteristics of the city’s different areas – from the old-time atmosphere of the Bandung heritage area, to the modern, luxurious zones of the city,” says Yusup Gumilar, in charge of Road and Bridge Analysis in the Public Works Agency of Bandung Municipality.
In order to optimise its resources and enable further development of Bandung’s urban lighting, the municipality has been investing in the latest streetlighting technology to reduce electricity consumption and costs. A LED streetlight replacement programme has been underway, and over half of Bandung’s streetlights have been converted to LEDs over the past few years.
The study Sustainable Low Carbon Urban Lighting Analysis: A Case Study of Bandung City published in 2020 by Yusup Gumilar, Li Jun, and Melda Ria Juwita has attempted to determine the LED replacement’s resulting energy and cost reduction.
“While LED replacement to save streetlighting energy costs is a well-known trend, each city has its own factors to consider before replacing its streetlights. City governments often need to address policy obstacles by proving the effectiveness and efficiency of the street lighting replacement. The amount of energy and cost reduced by the replacement is often one of the most important factors, and this is what we sought to determine in our study,” says Yusup Gumilar.
The study found that among the 33,907 streetlights in the city (according to 2019 data released by the Bandung Municipality Public Works Agency), approximately 56% (about 18,888) have been converted to LEDs so far. The study evaluation shows that a total of 31.5% of electricity energy consumption and electricity cost is expected to be saved by complete LED replacement of streetlighting.
Furthermore, as Yusup Gumilar expressed during his presentation at the LUCI Asia Urban Lighting Workshop 2020, the LED replacement also reduces carbon emission of the city by 26%. The Bandung Municipality also expects that LED streetlights in combination with more advanced technology, such as dimming systems, will be able to further reduce energy, costs and carbon emissions for the city.
“There are still many areas of improvement, as well as elements that we need to fix and develop. We hope to address these issues, and increase our knowledge and insight about urban lighting developments, particularly streetlights, by studying and discussing with various sources and references from other countries around the world,” says Yusup Gumilar.
- Download the study Sustainable Low Carbon Urban Lighting Analysis: A Case Study of Bandung City here
- Learn more about Bandung on the Bandung City website
