Waterford Council saves over €350,000 in energy costs following public lighting project

Waterford City and County Council participated in the National Public Lighting Energy Efficiency Project (PLEEP) which oversaw the upgrade of public lighting to LED technology. 

Almost 10,000 lights have been retrofitted in Waterford under the current project, where the primary objective was to maximise energy savings and enhance efficiency across the public lighting network. This was carried out by replacing the traditional son/sox light fittings that were banned from manufacturing in 2023.

The installation of the luminaries has resulted in excess of 50% in energy savings, made as a result of these lighting upgrades. This also contributes to Waterford Council meeting their energy reduction target by 2030. The process of retrofitting public lights across the city and county began in August 2024 and was completed in February 2026. 

Gabriel Hynes, Acting Director of Services for Roads, Water and Environment with the Council noted that apart from the energy savings, the energy efficiency programme has resulted in less public lighting outages also. To date, approximately 98.7% of public lighting is on and functioning correctly.

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Mr Hynes commented, “This has an added benefit in cost savings being made through less maintenance being required on the led lighting installations. Funding of the upgrades was partially covered by the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment’s Climate Action Fund to a sum of €1 million with the remainder being funded by Waterford City and County Council. As a result, in 2025 energy cost savings of €358,179 were achieved by the Council due to the PLEEP process.” 

A secondary objective of the PLEEP was to survey and collect data on the condition of the public lighting infrastructure. This was completed to help the region’s local authority to strategically plan and invest in the upgrading of the public lighting underground infrastructure. 

Almost 20% of Waterford City and County Council’s public lighting inventory consists of older concentric cable infrastructure. This will require significant upgrade and investment in the region of €20-€30 million to address these legacy issues. The Council has now submitted a funding request to the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment regarding this. 

Waterford City and County Council will continue to maintain all public lighting, targeting the incidents of non-functional public lighting to remain below 2% of total lighting stock at any given time. 

Public lighting faults can be logged on the Deadsure app or via Waterford City and County Council’s website here.