By Chris Ashmore
DONEGAL County Council is set to spend more than €2.42 million in 2025 on keeping the county’s 19,500 public street lights lit.
Indeed, it’s a costly business for the council as public lighting accounts for 50 per cent of the council’s total power usage each year.
But this hefty electric bill could be even higher had it not been for the fact that the local authority is nearing the completion of a major energy efficiency programme which has seen more than 82 per cent of the lights now being fitted with modern LED lights.
Nevertheless, this has required considerable investment. Back in 2018 the council took a decision to borrow up to €13 million over a five-year period to upgrade its public lighting system.
The old orange coloured SOX lights – once a common sight in towns and villages – have now largely been replaced. With many of the older bulbs no longer manufactured, the Council had little choice, and it has also been able to keep on track for its energy efficiency targets.
The cost of replacing the old SOX and SON lights varied from between €350 to €850 per new light, depending on whether the lamppost required a new housing unit and rewiring.
Two thirds of the old SOX lamps were on council-owned steel columns with the remainder on ESB-owned wooden columns.
With the growth of towns and villages the number of public street lights has also increased, by 30 per cent, from 15,000 in 2016 – when there were no LED bulbs used – to 19,000 in 2024.
According to Richard Gibson, the council’s director of finance, during this time the amount of electricity consumed to power the lights has actually fallen by 32 per cent.
“The council will continue with its LED retrofit programme over the next two years with the focus turning to the higher wattage SON lights replacement,” he stated in the Capital Budget 2025-2027 commentary.
Transport for Ireland funding has also been received for upgrading lighting on primary roads.
Meanwhile, the maintenance of public lighting is carried out for the Council by Electric Skyline. Any faults should be reported to it, and not the Council. The street lighting fault telephone number is 1800 150 150.
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