Street lighting system in Chandigarh all set for overhaul
MC floats request for proposal for LED upgrade, smart monitoring, 10-year infra upkeep
The Municipal Corporation (MC) is going to modernise the street lighting in the city.
It has issued a request for proposal (RFP) inviting bids for the purpose. In its meeting in May this year, the MC General House had decided that the existing lights needed to be replaced with high-efficiency ones having better and centralised control systems.
According to the RFP, the MC needs a single, accountable private sector partner to take over the entire public street lighting system for a defined period, replace existing LED luminaries with current-generation units, restore centralised smart monitoring and control and provide professional operation and maintenance.
The company will deploy new central control and monitoring system (CCMS) feeder panels across all light points with timer-based operation, along with individual light controllers, fully integrated with MC’s Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC).
A CCMS with clock-based operation ensures lights are on only during required hours. The selected bidder will have to form ward-wise dedicated maintenance teams and set up 24x7 CCMS monitoring and citizen complaint management system. The new system will also significantly reduce CO2 emissions through savings in electricity consumption resulting from lower wattage.
The selected bidder will be responsible for the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of all smart LED luminaires and CCMS feeder panels. The cost of the project will be determined through competitive bidding.
The firm will strengthen infrastructure, including poles, cables (overhead and underground), earthing and junction boxes. It will also be responsible for operation and maintenance of the infrastructure for a 10-year concession period.
In 2018-19, the MC had partnered with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to install energy-efficient LED street lighting infrastructure across the city. As many as 45,871 LED light points and 681 CCMS panels were installed, supported by a multi-year operation and maintenance (O&M) contract.
With the expiration of the EESL O&M contract, the corporation is now independently managing the infrastructure.
As per the RFP, existing luminaires, which are now more than eight years old, have significantly lower luminous efficacy than current-generation LED technology. A majority of the 681 CCMS panels installed by the EESL are now non-operational, timers and clocks are largely inoperative across multiple wards, causing street lights to operate outside scheduled hours, resulting in avoidable energy consumption, the MC claimed in the RFP.
