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 and Phillip Island Nature Parks, the trial will improve public lighting by replacing existing streetlights with smart streetlights.
Smart streetlights have sensors that detect motion and interact intelligently with their environment. They can automatically adjust brightness to significantly reduce energy consumption and help native animals maintain their natural behaviours.
Our sites for the trial are:
- 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.
- 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.
This upgrade:
- benefits native animals in Phillip Island through minimising light pollution. Artificial light can disrupt circadian cycles, change behaviour, reduce survivorship or reproductive output.
- saves energy from passive dimming via motion sensors.
- 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.
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.