Opinion – Pablo Acosta: Public lighting as a factor of safety, inclusion and sustainability

Public lighting represents more than 3% of total energy consumption, the second largest budget expense for many municipalities in Brazil. The modernization of street lighting thanks to the use of LED lamp technology can reduce energy consumption by 50% to 70%, providing greater savings to municipalities and better public services with high benefits for women and other vulnerable groups who need to move around cities. in the evening. The improvement of public lighting is also an important factor in the creation of urban spaces that are safe, which is an important concern in the country and especially for women, since Brazil is among the countries with the highest number of femicides according to the world ranking of United Nations Violence Against Women (2020).

In recent times the public service of public lighting has been undergoing major institutional, regulatory and technological transformations. The advancement of technologies such as LED luminaires is impacting on a large scale in several cities around the world and allows great energy savings, with reduced environmental impacts, improved performance and durability, with reduced maintenance costs, for the benefit of the tax payer. In addition to the technological and economic factor, the quality of service is fundamental to respond to the benefit of the community, especially with regard to security —which mainly benefits vulnerable population groups including women— and promotes the inclusion of elements of smart cities in urban dynamics. .

Public lighting projects promote not only the improvement of lighting levels in cities, but also the valorization with better use of public space, contributing to the efficient use of energy and reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and light pollution.

The sector has stood out as one of the most attractive for the implementation of PPP projects (Public-Private Partnerships). Structurally, public lighting PPPs are one of the most solid in Brazil, as the costing and expansion of this public service relies on the establishment of an exclusive source of funds, charged directly from electricity consumers — the Contribution to the Cost of Public Lighting, known as CIP or COSIP. There is a growing private market interested in establishing partnerships with the public sector in the public lighting segment, as long as the projects are properly structured, with well-allocated risks, balanced from the point of view of financial attractiveness for the investor and with positive externalities for the citizen. .

In order for the modernization of the public lighting sector to benefit multiple cities, it is important to support municipal public managers in the identification and structuring of public-private partnership projects, to reduce transaction costs and ensure that the private sector is interested in carrying out the investments. Structured projects based on good reference practices result in better service provided and lower fees charged to citizens, in addition to contributing to the national experience with PPPs.

The WBG (World Bank Group) has been supporting initiatives in this area in Brazil for several years. With the financial support of Esmap (Program of Assistance to the Management of the Energy Sector), in 2016 the World Bank published the report “Iluminando Cidades Brasileiras”, in which business models and financing are identified that can make the modernization of public lighting possible for all Brazilian cities, including the PPP model. In 2022, the Practical Guide for Structuring Public Lighting PPP Projects (“Practical Guide”) was also made available by the World Bank and the Global Infrastructure Facility, which aims to disseminate the lessons learned in the Lighting PPP project structuring program public. The Practical Guide presents in a didactic way the step by step for the structuring of PPP projects for the modernization of the Public Lighting sector in order to disseminate knowledge, sharing good practices.

In line with other global studies, the preliminary results of the analyzes suggest that the quality of street lighting services has a strong impact on citizens’ perceptions of safety, and that women face insecurity more often than men in poorly lit areas.

It is critical to continue supporting the goal of making Brazilian cities safer, more inclusive and sustainable.

This column was written in collaboration with my World Bank colleagues Megan Meyer, Senior Energy Specialist, Julia Conter, Operations Analyst, and Javier Freire, Energy Specialist.