Kildare’s public lighting contractor making “good progress” on fault backlog
The performance of the new contractor is monitored using Deadsure, the fault reporting software
THE firm contracted to take care of Kildare’s public lighting has managed to replace 137 lights in the first month of operation, a return described by a Council Engineer as “good progress”.
This came to light following a maiden question from newly elected Cllr Ger Dunne, at the recent Naas Municipal District meeting.
“Can the council provide an update as to the progress being made on the nonfunctioning streetlights and public lights in general in the Naas Municipal District since the appointment of the new contractor?” enquired Cllr Dunne.
The new contractor took over on 15 July after the previous one – Enerveo – bailed out after just 5 months following the expiry of their contract.
This new firm, whose name has not yet been made public looks like getting a three year contract to fulfil Kildare County Council’s policy of swopping out all the 23,000 old, sodium [yellow] streetlights in the county for more energy efficient LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) in a task expected to cost in the region of €20m.
“The performance of the contractor is monitored using Deadsure, the fault reporting software,” explained Naas Area Engineer David Reel.
(In July it was revealed that this software management system – DeadSure- that monitors outages reported by the public is controlled and owned by the Local Authority.) However, in reply to cllr Dunne’s exact enquiry, Mr Reel revealed: “the data from the software is provided at county wide level and not by the Municipal District, it is not possible to answer the specific request for your MD. However, the contractor has been making progress since commencing on 15 July,” he went on. “There were 464 active faults when the new contractor took over and there were 327 active faults at the end of August,” he revealed.
“The contractor is making good progress in reducing the fault count down to the anticipated level of 260, or one per cent of our entire inventory,” he said.
The contractor currently has four electricians that are approved to work in County Kildare, and are working towards having six electricians,” he revealed in conclusion.
The cost of swopping out all 23,000 public sodium lights for LEDs in Kildare has been estimated at €20m.
This may seem expensive, but it is just the equivalent of the cost of the electricity to power the old sodium technology for up to eight years.
