Paris lighting

Creating an eco-capital of sustainable lighting

What finer challenge could there be than helping Paris, the city of light, carry out its energy revolution? A complete overhaul of street lighting and illuminations in Paris by Evesa, a subsidiary of Bouygues Energies & Services, is reducing the French capital’s spending on energy. The lighting is more energy-efficient and the management solutions adopted have proved highly successful.

Bertrand Richard,

Chairman of Evesa

“We want the street lighting to be perceived by Parisians as a professional, powerful and innovative service worthy of such an extraordinary city as Paris.”

Challenge

In 2011, street lighting and illuminations accounted for more than a third of the City of Paris’s spending on energy. So the French capital adopted a strategy of making itself more efficient and responsible in terms of its electricity consumption. It launched the flagship Paris Climate Plan, one aspect of which included an ambitious target of saving 30% in the energy consumed by lighting by 2020 without sacrificing anything of the atmosphere of the “city of light”. Bearing in mind this would include 180,000 light points to be replaced along with 300 illuminated sites and 140,000 traffic light lamps, the enormous scale of the project is clear.

Environment

Evesa, a subsidiary of Bouygues Energies & Services, is helping Paris achieve its target through a three-part action plan: renovating equipment, replacing energy-intensive lights with more efficient units and introducing an innovative method of managing the installations. By the end of 2015, the results were already extremely impressive, with an energy saving of 18% already achieved. In the Place de la Concorde, for example, replacing 500-watt bulbs by new 120- or 90-watt bulbs has reduced energy consumption by 70%. Similarly, the extensive use of LED lights has now made it possible to modulate the lighting according to time-bands and levels of traffic, adapting it accurately to needs. In addition, LED lighting allows uniform illumination of roads and pavements, meaning greater safety for all.

Responsible

Evesa employs a range of innovative solutions as it seeks to meet the requirements of the energy performance contract. To ensure that its services respect both the environment and city’s residents, it is totally committed to employing solutions that meet the criteria of sustainable development. It is consistent in all parts of its response chain: waste recycling and recovery, regular carbon balances of installations and a higher proportion of clean vehicles in the fleet. The environmentally-friendly cherry-pickers that are used, for instance, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 66% when in service for repair operations.

Their electric articulated arms also minimise noise pollution.

Innovation

Responsible for performing both curative and preventive maintenance, the contract represents a permanent operation for Evesa. To provide a high level of service, its call-out centre is on call 24/7, working in constant interaction with a network of partners. Evesa is committed to a very rapid response when it has to repair a lighting column or traffic light. To ensure optimal management of maintenance operations, technicians are equipped with tablet PCs that enable them to log each intervention so that details can be accessed on a dedicated website.

In Short

180,000

light points managed

85%

of the city's street lights renewed in 10 years

30%

of energy saving by 2020