Sofia introduces LED in street lighting

The City of Sofia recently developed and publicly presented its first LED street lighting project, which includes a package of technical measures that will modernize the public lighting system and cut its energy bills.

In some areas of the city, all sodium high pressure, mercury and luminescent lamps will be replaced by energy effective LED systems. These measures will result in an annual decrease of the electricity costs by 386 998 € and a further 191 979 € as maintenance and repairs savings.

The project, which is expected to start at the end of 2012, includes areas in the centre of Sofia as well as the regions Druzhba 1 and 2, Ovtcha Kupel 1 and 2, Tzarigradsko Shose boulevard and Bakya – representing approximately 12% of the Municipality’s territory and approximately 10% of its population.The overall value of the project is 5 million €, 20% of which are from the municipal budget, and the remaining 80% will be co-financed by the international fund “Kozloduy (2010- 2013).”

The international fund “Kozloduy” was established to manage the EU grant for ear ly decommission of the f ir st four blocks of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Among the funded measures are also those for the reduction of the negative consequences for the energy sector resulting from the closure of the blocks.