We’re trialling innovative smart streetlight technology in Phillip Island to reduce energy consumption and protect native wildlife by minimising disruption to their natural behaviours.
In collaboration with Bass Coast Shire Council, Phillip Island Nature Parks and Signify, the trial will improve public lighting by replacing existing streetlights with smart streetlights.
Smart streetlights interact intelligently with their environment. They can adjust brightness to provide the right amount of light at the right time. By not providing more light than necessary, they reduce energy consumption and protect native animals by minimising disruption to their natural behaviours.
Our sites for the trial are:
- The Phillip Island Bridge, where we will add smart lighting controllers to 17 existing lights and replace two LED white lights with warm white LEDs with smart controllers. This will give the bridge warm lighting at night and allow us to switch it on and off for the annual shearwater bird migration.
- Minor roads on The Esplanade near ‘Surfies Point’ in Sunderland Bay, where we will replace existing lights with warm white LEDs with smart controllers.
- At the intersection of Phillip Island Road and Back Beach Road, where we will add smart controllers to existing warm white LEDs.
- Old Bridge Drive, replacing existing lights with warm white LEDs with advanced proximity sensor capability.
- Cottesloe Ave, near Woolamai Back Beach, replacing existing lights with warm white LEDs with advanced proximity sensor capability.
This upgrade:
- benefits native animals in Phillip Island through minimising light pollution. Artificial light can disrupt circadian cycles, change behaviour, reduce survival rates and reproductive success.
- saves energy by passive dimming.
- gives us better visibility and control of streetlights (i.e. notification of outages and pole collisions) so we can fix any damage and get the power back on faster.
Images supplied by Phillip Island Nature Parks
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We will gather feedback from Phillip Island residents and the broader community about the improved lighting quality, safety and environmental impact.
We will also consider community sentiment and impact on native animal activity in our evaluation and proposal to deploy smart streetlights throughout our electricity distribution network.
Submit your feedback here.
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Smart streetlight trial factsheet