Warsaw. Intelligent lighting control systems. Auction. Offers. What’s it about?

Warsaw continues to replace its lighting. Old ones are replaced by SAVA LED lamps. Warsaw’s lighting consists of up to 122,000 lamps and almost the same number of streetlight poles, lighting more than three thousand kilometers of roads. The capital already has 64,600 SAVA lamps, of which more than 87,000 are fully LED. This means that every second fixture in the city is replaced.

“Every year, SAVY allows you to save up to two thirds of electricity compared to the old lamps they replace. It already saves almost PLN 42 million per year, while providing a better quality of lighting. Their light is not only brighter, but also more concentrated, i.e. downwards. As a result, it significantly reduces The so-called phenomenon of light pollution“- the Municipal Roads Administration explained in a statement.

In the coming months, road workers plan to replace the remaining hundreds of thousands of fixtures on municipal streets. This will also be an LED lamp. “Thus, Warsaw’s annual energy consumption will be reduced by several dozen megawatt hours. Eventually, the number of SAVs alone will reach about 80,000, and almost all lamps in the capital will be energy-efficient,” they emphasize.

– Warsaw leads by example. Literally! Our lighting replacement program with energy-efficient SAVA lamps can be a model for other cities – not only in Poland, but throughout Europe. Road engineers quote Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski as saying that the new lamps not only save us millions of dollars every year, but most importantly, they increase road safety.

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At the end of February, road workers announced a tender for a remote control system for street lights in Warsaw. “The purpose of the system is to enable early detection of faults, monitor energy consumption and control light intensity,” they explained. The submission of offers has closed. There are four in total: 115.6 million PLN (Orange Polska and Schreder Polska consortium), 49.9 million PLN (Lithuanian consortium – Lucidus Techno UAB and Lucidus SIA), 171.4 million PLN (Emitel SA), 44.4 (Pollight).

“Two of the quotations were in line with our cost estimates. Now we will analyse them carefully. We hope that the tender will be successful,” ZDM informed.

As part of the implementation of modern lighting control systems, most luminaires will be equipped with special controllers – which inform their operation and allow advanced remote control. “This will allow not only the rapid detection of faults, but also their prediction. This will increase safety and reduce maintenance costs” – they added.

The system also allows you to choose the optimal lighting parameters on streets, sidewalks and bike paths. Road engineers explain that based on the new equipment, other existing systems and services (such as traffic measurement or available parking space monitoring) can be expanded in the long term and completely new ones implemented. “The controller will keep the lanterns powered 24 hours a day. Currently, they only have power at dusk and the lighting switches on automatically,” they add.

The municipal roads authority also plans to implement adaptive lighting, which switches lighting levels on, off or down, depending on weather conditions or traffic intensity, etc. “This will allow us to further reduce electricity consumption costs,” the road engineer stressed.

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– ZDM director Łukasz Puchalski said that in the future it would also be possible to set up charging stations for city bikes and scooters near the lighthouses. The voltage from the light poles, which are switched on 24 hours a day, could also power devices in buses and trams and transmit data for dynamic passenger information.

– We do not exclude that in the future the lighting infrastructure may be used as the core of the city’s 5G network, i.e. a fast bus for secure data exchange for the purposes of city infrastructure management – adds Łukasz Puchalski.

Accidents at pedestrian crossings are a big problem for the city. “Investments such as the replacement of street lighting have improved safety for Warsaw residents, including pedestrian and bicycle path users, as well as drivers,” ZDM noted.

– That’s why we decided to improve the situation. We have audited more than four thousand pedestrian crossings. We set ourselves the most ambitious goal ever – “Vision Zero”. We work to prevent fatal accidents on city roads, bike paths and sidewalks – explains Rafał Trzaskowski.

This is achieved by designating new pedestrian crossings based on the audit results and modernizing and lighting existing ones. Between 2018 and 2023, 2,000 crossing points in Warsaw were illuminated. The infrastructure at 500 locations was also improved in terms of safety. Pedestrian shelters, elevations, speed bumps and visibility were improved.

According to road engineers, by 2023, Warsaw’s streets will be filled with Fewest road traffic accident victims (29) since such data began to be collected, that is, since 1983 (for comparison – in 1991 there were 314 victims). “In six years, the number of accidents has decreased by 44%. Today, the rate of accidents per million inhabitants in the capital is three times lower than the national average and almost twice lower than the EU average,” they added.

They clarified that a few years ago pedestrians accounted for the majority of the injured in Warsaw, while now the proportion is one in three. For the first time, the number of pedestrians killed on the streets of the capital is approaching single digits (11 victims).

Is Warsaw a safe city? As the road engineer points out, a survey of residents conducted by the Capital City Office showed that 92% of respondents affirmed and strongly agreed with the statement that the area around where they live is safe and quiet.

“In the 2023 European Quality of Life in Cities report, Warsaw ranked first among Europe’s major cities and in the top ten of all European capitals where residents feel safe walking alone on the streets at night. 77 people claimed that compared to 68% of respondents in Madrid and 65% in Paris, Warsaw was only ahead of smaller capitals such as Copenhagen, Oslo and Helsinki.”