Petrovac na Mlavi to get LED public lighting in October thanks to PPP

This month, another local self-government in central Serbia, Petrovac na Mlavi, has decided to use electricity more efficiently and modernize its public lighting by introducing LED lighting, which is why the town’s administration signed a public-private partnership agreement (PPP) with two companies to implement this project.

Petrovac na Mlavi’s mayor, Duško Nedinić, signed a public-private partnership agreement with companies Esco Elios and GGE Esco to reconstruct, streamline and maintain public lighting of this town.

Under the agreement, Petrovac on Mlavi will in October receive state-of-the-art LED lighting, manufactured by Philips. Replacement of existing public lighting is foreseen in streets, parks and other public areas of the town, and starting from the following year the same works are planned in all villages of the municipality.

According to the agreement signed, the obligation of local self-government is to continue to pay the same amount as before for the energy consumed by public lighting, while the private partner found its interest in installing LED lighting in the price difference achieved by energy savings.

After the agreed contractual period of 15 years has expired, Petrovac on Mlavi would receive this public lighting, which automatically reduces the costs for its use. Until then, in addition to construction works, the private partner would be entrusted with controlling the entire system.

Nedinić reminded that by 2020 all municipalities in Serbia are obliged to replace old lighting with new, energy-saving lighting, and because his municipality could not finance this project on its own, it opted for PPP.

He pointed out that Petrovac na Mlavi is not paying anything for this project, saying that besides savings and health benefits, LED lighting will contribute to the town’s better appearance.

The agreement envisages the replacement of 1,521 old lamps with 1,426 LED lamps and 50 halogen lamps, as well as the replacement of an outdated public lighting switching system in all 36 substations of this local self-government with a new automatic, energy efficient system. Installing new lighting will reduce consumption from 205kW to 40kW.

LED lamps on the streets of Serbia since 2010

LED lamps are energy-efficient lighting consuming three times less energy than old lighting, they emit a small amount of energy so that in addition to high energy savings, environmental pollution is also reduced, while their light is most similar to daylight.

New LED public lighting technology was introduced in Serbia for the first time in 2010 in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Novi Bečej.

With the help of PPP, it is already available to smaller towns such as Žabalj, Ada, Đurđevo, Gospodinci, Čurug, Topola, while, for example, the local self-government of Kruševac partly solved the problem of replacing obsolete lighting with the help of donations by international organizations. It is now preparing to implement the complete solution also through PPP.