Sixteen local governments across north, west and central Victoria have formed the Lighting the Regions project partnership to implement what will be one of the largest street lighting partnerships in Australia.

The project will replace up to 23,000 street lights from the old mercury vapour style street lighting to more energy efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).

The project will also reduce energy consumption, saving up to 180,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases and provide regional communities with savings of more than $57 million over 20 years in energy costs.

To date over 15,000 street lights have been changed making the project 65% complete and ahead of schedule as at the end of July.

The Northern Grampians region will be the eleventh region to have lights changed, following the successful changeover of lights in the Bendigo region.

The changeover in Northern Grampians of up to 891 older style mercury street lights to the new LED lights by is Powercor expected to be completed by the end of the month.

The roll out is expected to commence in S. Arnaud and then progress through to Glenorchy, Stawell, Halls Gap and then onto Great Western.

“The project is full of positives for Council, the community and the environment, with better street lighting, less energy required to operate the lights and significant operating cost savings,” Northern Grampians Shire Mayor, Cr Murray Emerson said.

“We’re thrilled to have been a partner in this project.”

Cr Emerson hopes the project will encourage other organisations and even local residents to make energy efficient lighting changes at home and in the workplace.

“We’re all looking for ways to save money and simple lighting changes can help do this, with an added benefit for the environment,” Cr Emerson said.

Powercor is the Distribution Network Service Provider for the Lighting the Regions project and maintains and operates the street lighting infrastructure on behalf of the local government partners.

This collaborative project partnership will yield significant economic and environmental project benefits for the 16 local government Councils involved in the project, and will pull together the expertise, resourcing and financial resources required to take energy efficiency action together with their communities.

This $11.6 million project, which covers nearly half of regional Victoria, includes $5 million of funding from the Australian Government and will run until June 2016.

The Wimmera Mallee Sustainability Alliance and Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance have been instrumental in establishing this successful lighting partnership.