In Local News / By Matthew H Tong / 17 July 2018 10:32 am / 21 comments

Penang can look forward to a brighter future, from a street lighting viewpoint at least. The state aims to be the first in the country to have 100% LED street lighting by 2020, Bernama reports.

According to state housing, local government, urban and rural planning committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo, the move will fulfil the Pakatan Harapan government’s pledge made during the 14th general election in which it promised to install 20,000 LED streetlights across Penang. The upgrading project will not just involve street lights maintained by the local authorities, but also those managed by Tenaga Nasional.

“Penang will be the first state in Malaysia to have all LED street lights, which can save energy and reduce bill costs by up to 60%,” he told reporters. Jagdeep said that in Penang, a total of 33,198 street lamps will be converted into LEDs by 2020.

“Last year, the Penang city council had footed electricity bills for street lights amounting to almost RM6 million,” he said, adding that a separate RM7 million was paid by the Seberang Perai municipal council for the same purpose.

Aside from reducing electricity costs, the replacement for the high-pressure sodium lamp will offer significantly better illumination – for motorists, this means an improvement in general visibility, which should translate to a faster brake and avoidance reaction time.