LED eyed for streetlights

CEBU, Philippines — An adhoc committee was created by the Cebu City Council to look into how much money can be saved if the city government will use the Light Emitting Diode (LED) for street lighting.

The committee will be composed of representatives from the city government and the Visayan Electric.

The members of the committee will conduct a survey and inventory of all the city streetlights and submit a report to the City Council every month until March next year.

The city reportedly spend P11 million every month for the electric consumption of the streetlights.

Engineer Felicito Josol, head of the street lighting division, estimated that the city government can save at least 40 percent in electric consumption for every LED bulb.

Josol said that the city was able to bring down its electric consumption for streetlights for the months of July, August, and September.

“The city was able to reduce its total wattage,” Josol said.

He explained that since he assumed office on July 1, 2019, they have already installed 813 LED bulbs, replacing the old Mercury Vapor Light (MVL), Metal Halide Bulb (MHB), High-Pressure Sodium (HPS), Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLB), and Incandescent Light Bulbs (ILB).

Based on the records of Visayan Electric, there are 30,971 street lighting posts registered in Cebu City. The Department of Public Services said 687 of which were already installed with LED.  FPL (FREEMAN)