An official report criticizing the public lighting system in Algeria.. and warns of great dangers

Algeria is working to fulfill its commitments regarding energy efficiency, in light of the global trend towards energy transition to adopt an effective response to climate change.

In this regard, the Prefecture of Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency issued a report in French entitled "Public Lighting in Algeria - National Reference for Quality and Energy-Saving Lighting", exploring ways to improve the country's lighting sector, and the problems it faces.

Algeria had earlier issued a decision to use public lighting that consumes less energy as a priority, to reduce the electricity bill for local authorities.

She emphasized that this sector alone mobilizes 2,839 GWh, or about 60% of the total electricity consumption in municipalities, with an annual budget of approximately 15 billion Algerian dinars (106.9 million US dollars).

Energy efficiency in Algeria

The report emphasized that the concept of energy transition - which is taking shape today around the world - clearly imposed itself as the only reliable element to respond to concerns related to the expected scarcity of traditional energy resources, and their obvious effects in growing in the environment.

Although the strategies developed in this direction are clearly defined, they can all be summarized in two basic action plans: promoting energy efficiency and increasing the use of clean energy resources, such as renewable energy resources.

The lighting sector - whose energy bill fell to less than 15% of global electricity production in 2015, down from 19% in 2009 - is a good example of the progress being made.

Indeed, although lighting needs have clearly evolved with inherent urban sprawl, the sector's overall energy consumption has dropped dramatically with the adoption of new, more efficient lamps, such as those based on light-emitting diodes or LEDs, According to the report.

These components also opened up new horizons in this field, inasmuch as they allowed a significant expansion of stand-alone lighting applications based on solar photovoltaic electricity.

Lack of experience and regulations

Although public authorities in Algeria have issued clear directives encouraging the use of renewable energies and more moderation in energy consumption, it must be said that progress on the ground is still unclear .

This is often due to a lack of rigorous mastery of new technologies, as knowing the smallest details remains essential to optimizing options according to local capabilities.

Moreover, the lack of precise national regulations in the field of lighting in general, and public lighting in particular, leaves much room for improvisation on the part of the departments responsible for developing specifications to respond to demand.

Public lighting, whose main purpose is to equip open spaces (roads, public squares, entertainment venues, etc.) illumination, light quality, etc.).

The public lighting complex in Algeria

The competent public services in the Ministry of Interior, local authorities and planning issued the results of the last census of all the lighting points that make up the public lighting complex in Algeria and the nature of the lighting sources used, towards the year 2018.

The first observation made by the report is that the share of mercury lamps is very large, and that their gradual replacement, according to the ministerial circular issued on February 5, 2018, may take a long time, without knowing the operating period of those that work, as well as the state of stocks supplied before the circular.

In any case, a significant portion of the 3 million discharge (mercury and sodium) lamps will continue to be used for many years to come, because premature replacement of LEDs would be too expensive and economically inconsequential.

Faced with this reality, the asset still needs to be addressed to try to make it more energy efficient over its remaining life cycle, ultimately achieving significant energy gains that can significantly justify the cost of the operation.

For the replacement of old mercury and sodium based lamps, which have reached the end of their cycle and until the standard stock is depleted, it is recommended to switch to LED lamps but after careful consideration of which model to adopt.

Evaluation and Recommendations

The report stresses that electricity consumption in public lighting in Algeria has led to very few objective analyzes, in order to reveal the true causes of the disproportionate increase, and to take the necessary measures.

In fact, no concrete plan to monitor the energy performance of the systems produced appears to have been put in place, even where it was the subject of clear guidelines, resulting in costly deliverables as a result.

This situation, together with the chronic absence of precise regulations in this area, which could at least serve as a purely theoretical bulwark against initial excesses, in reality leaves little room for any progress in which an energy efficiency strategy is credible and reliable.

Therefore, there is a need to properly prioritize and improve the situation of the sector, starting with clarifying the powers assigned to the competent services with the local authorities, while providing them with all the means that enable them to work locally, or to involve some regional or even national capacities.

With this in mind, and while waiting for the establishment of legally accredited laboratories to issue quality assurance certificates for any product that is put on the national market, nothing prevents in many cases simple tests being carried out locally, in order to decide in advance about the ability of a particular device to perform functions required correctly.

Deficit in organization and maintenance

It is clear that there is an urgent need to get out of this situation as soon as possible, because it is likely that the measure implemented under the current circumstances will have a negative and permanent impact on the expected progress in terms of quality and illumination General energy saving.

Because they are deployed outdoors, street lights intended for public lighting are obviously subject to climatic and other hazards, as well as known maintenance.

Actual maintenance of public lighting fixtures seems to be very rare, apart from the interventions required to replace a defective lamp or part.

Many real-world observations also show that maintenance is not planned, at least periodic cleanings are absolutely necessary, as evidenced by the solar street lights whose PV modules have not received a single cleaning since their installation.

There is thus clearly a large gap between a legitimate interest in saving electricity in public lighting on the one hand, and then paying a high price for fixtures that can remain functional and provide useful lighting autonomously for a long time.

Criteria for selection of alternative lamps

As logical as elsewhere, the adoption of LED lamps as the main light source in public lighting in Algeria has been mainly driven by the concern for energy efficiency in this field.

The translation of this in practice, therefore, is to replace the current stock with LED lamps, which consist mainly of sodium lamps (62%) and mercury (36%), according to available statistics for 2018.

However, the process that started a few years ago and has practically reached a high speed, especially in some major cities of the country, is taking place in an unregulated manner, as there is no standard that allows for the correct selection of LED replacement lamps.

Thus, taking into account the case of the state of Algeria, standard specifications were set in 2019, as 5 energy levels were specified for LED lamps (from 50 to 250 watts) with a lighting efficiency of no less than 120 lumens / watt.

Solar energy and the heat problem

The technical parameters necessary to guide the final selection of storage batteries, according to the specific requirements of solar lighting, show that it is impossible to avoid resorting to certain compromises, the results of which can have a lasting impact on Expected public service quality.

This is very important, given that there is a complete lack of applicable standards in the field of batteries at the national level, especially on the quality of operation in hot weather.

Local ambient temperatures often do not exceed the limits indicated by the manufacturers and can be very harmful.

In fact, all batteries on the market, including those critical to a solar lighting application, generally operate at an ambient temperature of 20°C.

Temperature is known to have a strong effect on the electrochemistry of a battery which is therefore subject to more accelerated aging due to the higher operating temperature imposed, resulting in a significant reduction in its lifespan.

Battery life can drop to half that initially displayed for each 10°C elevation, i.e. for an ambient temperature of just 30°C.

On the other hand, knowing the typical hot climate of Algeria and the magnified effect of direct exposure to sunlight, the relevant question arises regarding the use of lighting mode without taking the necessary precautions.

Among these precautions, the conditions suitable for the proper operation of the battery cannot be neglected, without exceeding the limits insistently indicated by the manufacturers themselves, in particular the temperature conditions given the local climate and environment.

In this case and according to the estimations carefully extracted from the operating conditions of the solar street lamp, the report indicated that the solution of placing the batteries in the slot adjacent to the street lamp could no longer be ruled out.

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