The city of Tuy Hoa is the economic, political, cultural and social center in Phu Yen province. It is also a regional transport center where National Highways 1A and 25 cross. Roads in the city span more than 100km. A focus has been on public light systems along national highways and major roads, while the light systems on lanes are dated and power-consuming.

Following the National Targeted Program on Energy Efficiency and Conservation, the Phu Yen Industrial Consultant and Energy Conservation Center has surveyed and evaluated the public light system and drawn up measures to reduce waste power and contribute to protecting the environment.

Phan Tuan Vu, the chief of the project to renew the public light system in Tuy Hoa, said that the public light systems on 207 of all 266 lanes are incomplete, insufficient and power-consuming.

In response to the socioeconomic development and the increasing demand for light, the public light system in the city must be sufficient, energy efficient and nice. However, due to insufficient funds, degraded infrastructure and the incomplete power transmission system, there remain problems for the public light system.

A survey of 79 roads in the city shows that many roads have used lamps with higher capacity than what is needed, which resulted in a large amount of waste power. Roads like 3/2, Ngo Gia Tu, Nguyen Tat Thanh and Le Hong Phong have used Sodium high-voltage, yellow-light lamps with a capacity of 150-250W, which is more than what is needed. In addition, the lamp-posts are too high and are not cleaned/serviced regularly causing low quality of light and high power consumption.

For this reason, the center has put in place many measures to improve the city light system. The first plan is to reduce lamps and replace 250W Sodium high-tension lamps with smaller ones.

Specifically, less than 5m-wide lanes will use compact lamps; 8-12m wide lanes - 100W Sodium high-voltage lamps; and over 24m-wide lanes – 250W Sodium high-voltage lamps.

Particularly, the public light system should be managed better. Timing systems should be installed to ensure sufficient, energy-efficient light in four seasons. Light management agencies must regularly maintain and repair the light system and prune down trees in order for them not to shade the lamps.

Tuy Hoa has renewed the light systems on less than 18m wide roads in the first phase. More than 27km of roads have renewed the light systems saving about 9.5 percent of power against previously. Initial statistics indicate that the city has saved more than 315,000kWh annually and reduced 135 tonnes of CO2.

It is expected that the project will be expanded to the remaining roads.

After the project is completed, 168 roads in Tuy Hoa with total length of over 100km will save about one million kWh or over VND1 billion annually. The project will also reduce 452 tonnes of CO2 thus contributing to protecting the environment in the city.