ORMOC CITY—This coastal city that has seen disasters in the past has scored a milestone toward protecting the environment by being the first city in the country to implement a city-wide LED street-lighting upgrade.
The project, which completes Ormoc’s transformation into a sustainable agro-commercial and industrial hub in Eastern Visayas, involved upgrading over 1,641 street lights with energy-efficient LED street lights.
In partnership with Philips Lighting, a world leader in lighting, the local government of the City of Ormoc conducted the official lighting ceremony at Ormoc’s old city hall building that is now being transformed into a museum.
Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez said the decision to have a city-wide LED street lighting is not only driven by economic considerations but also a conscious effort on the part of the city government to contribute to the reduction of carbon emission.
The city experienced some of the worst catastrophes in modern history like the flash flood in 1991 that killed over 3,000 people and Supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.
The project also illuminated the once dimly lit streets of the city and significantly reduced petty crimes at night, making people feel safer to roam. This improved businesses operating at night.
“The city used to be gloomy. The installation of LED lights improved the security of Ormoc. The people are no longer scared of going out at night,” Gomez said. “Peace and order is the No. 1 thrust of the city. Making the city bright is part of that program.”
Jagan Srinivasan, country manager of Philips Lighting Philippines, said Ormoc is a pioneering city that realized that switching to LED lighting reduces the city’s energy consumption by 70 percent.
“Apart from providing comfortable brightness that fosters safety, productivity and comfort, our well- designed and easy to maintain road lamps can deliver savings as much as P3.8 million per year just in energy consumption of the city,” Srinivasan added.
“From over 1 million kilowatts per hour to only 640,000-kW/hr consumption, the city of Ormoc is saving 193 tons of carbon dioxide, potentially saving 16,000 trees. This forward-thinking scheme of Ormoc City definitely sets the pace for LGUs [local government units] in the Philippines,” Srinivasan added.
With the city’s ongoing completion of fast street LED lighting retrofit, Ormoc is already getting over 70 percent in energy savings coming from the its previous sodium street-lighting luminaires.
Gomez said that, since the conversion to LED lights, the city government has already been saving as much as P250,000 in their electric bills for street lights alone. He said plans are already underway to change lights in all government offices to LED bulbs, as well.
Residents, including the city police and business owners, and tourists have expressed positive feedback on the installation of the generally brighter and more energy-efficient new LED street lights across the city. The city of Ormoc—known as the economic, cultural and commercial and transportation hub of Western Leyte—is home to over 215,000 inhabitants.
Gomez said the repair and completion of various infrastructure projects must respond to projected growth in population, economic activities and the natural hazards to which the city is exposed, in order to achieve a continuous and more resilient development.
“Aside from the operational and energy savings of our new LED road lights, the upgrade evidently transforms the visual appearance of Ormoc as an urban area—making our community more accessible, usable and safer, especially at night,” Gomez said.
The use of LED light has been identified as one strategy in the recent Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emission worldwide.
A new worldwide initiative called Global Lighting Challenge (GLC) was recently launched to promote energy-efficient lighting and had set the target of reaching 10 billion high-efficiency, high-quality and affordable advanced-lighting products, such as LEDs, around the world.
Participants agreed to make tangible, specific and bold commitments to advance energy efficient lighting. This include a global LED street-lighting initiative including global LED city consultations aimed at encouraging cities worldwide to use LED in all their street lights.