Working with my client HBS in Milton Keynes I was asked to look at how MK is lit and what improvements to the specification, cost, maintenance, safety and long term approach to lighting could be implemented.
This involved working directly with the Council and running their street lighting team. I was originally involved via ‘The BuyingTeam’ who were charged with saving money on street lighting. This project was to be a massive undertaking as the whole of the 58.000 street lights looked after by MK were to be assessed and a new overall strategy for the main street lighting and the city centre was formed. This undertaking involved CMS (Central Management Systems), sustainability, maintenance, cost and innovation.
It covered, street lighting, decorative lighting, underpasses, signage and heritage and had to reduce energy and end up with a long term sustainable solution.The challenges were many but all were overcome and I achieved something which met the clients brief and gave them a way forwards for their lighting stock for the next 30 years. The specification and recommendations are now being rolled out over the whole of Milton Keynes and this will continue over the coming years. The project started by looking at the current lighting and seeing where savings could be made. The whole life costing was the key to the project and that took into consideration initial product costs, product design, maintenance, recyclability, easy of installation, health and safety, future proofing and controllability.The current lighting in MK is mainly square columns and very inefficient globes which mainly light the sky and not the ground. These have been used since the MK concept documents was written 40 years ago and had not been addressed since. The columns were all originally painted and never maintained to a good standard along with old lamp technology and in most cases over lighting especially in the city centre. The new lighting has CMS controls system, stainless steel columns and uses white light in good quality optics to contain the light and make the most efficient use of it. This combination of equipment saved money, per point, on the existing and would last a lot longer with reduced maintenance so already saved the council money without adding in the benefits of the dimming and carbon reduction from the CMS system.
I initiated a trial in Netherfield which is a grid square in MK and over 400 columns and lanterns were installed. This was at that time the largest working remote monitored system in the UK. This was a success and after this the funding was sourced to roll it out into other areas. Also the City Centre was addresses and that included remote monitoring mainly funded by the developer work which was agreed with the planners. All new development sites also have the same spec of equipment installed to add to the system so lessening the financial cost to the Council.
The most important challenge to be faced with this project was dealing with the DNO opposition to running information down their power lines and also getting UMSUG and Elexon to change coding to allow for this kind of energy saving to be translated into actual savings. This meant I had many meetings with those concerned and in the end took it directly to Elexon who have now implemented an interim solution and are facilitating a longer term more specific solution to come in to play in the next year.
