To reach that goal Indonesia is, among other things, actively developing renewable energy sources and improving energy efficiency. For the latter, they have proposed a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) called the Smart Street Lighting Initiative (SSLI) that aims to increase the efficiency of street lighting by substituting conventional street lighting with more efficient technologies in cities and urban areas.
The SSLI cleverly combines lowering emissions and boosting the energy supply with the added benefits of cost-savings and energy metering for municipalities as well as improved public safety.
As part of the NAMA preparation, a study was conducted to examine people’s attitudes towards energy, their perceptions of light conditions at pilot sites, and what benefits they saw from installing the new street lights and being a part of the process. The studies were conducted in select pilot sites in the city of Makassar and included men and women on the street as well as businesses local to those sites.
The results were further analyzed across genders to assess potential differences between the attitudes of men and women.
The study indicates that Indonesia has a head start on creating a culture of energy efficiency with almost 65% of the respondents, both men and women, saying that they understand the concept of saving energy. Consumer awareness about energy requirements of purchased goods scored extremely high in the study, 87%, the reason for which was primarily economic and equally split between men and women. Understanding the concept of energy savings with relation to natural resources was correlated more closely to the respondent’s level of education.
When questioned about the condition of existing streetlights and adding new streetlights, the results began to skew towards women being more aware due to greater safety concerns.
Gender equity is a vital component for any new policies and initiatives introduced by national and local governments, and for any project that requests and receives international support. The SSLI developers have gone the extra mile to provide evidence-based assurance that both men and women will be well served by its implementation.
On the more practical level, the developers carefully looked at available street lighting technologies and their advantages and disadvantages, socially, environmentally, and economically. They documented their findings as part of their implementation plan and were so meticulous that it could be easily used as a reference for any country or municipality looking at viable options for street lighting.
International and Domestic Financing
The Indonesian Climate Change Trust Fund will administer any provided international NAMA funds to demonstrate the initiative in selected pioneer cities and to strengthen cities’ capacities. Implementation in the pilot cities will also serve to overcome barriers and pave the way for broader implementation that involves considerable domestic financing.
The project also introduces the ESCO (Energy Service Company) model that engages specialty companies to integrate the project’s design, financing, installation and operational elements in a way that maximizes both energy and economic efficiency. Through this model NAMA support is combined with domestic financing in the form of low interest loans to enable citywide implementation and leverage the impact of the NAMA support to other cities.
The SSLI is actively seeking international support for its implementation and the details of that support are listed in UNFCCC NAMA Registry. Participating in the Registry helps attract information on international financial, technical, and capacity building support and also provides a platform to share the ideas and the plan with countries with similar needs.
Three Phases of Implementation
The proposed NAMA would happen in three phases, each of which has a unique financing scheme:
- Demonstration phase, 2014-2015
- Training on benefits and implementation in several cities
- Lighting substitution in up to 4 cities supported by ICCTF grants and concessional loans by PIP
- Technical assistance (TA) to help cities access finance
- Elaboration of ESCO model
- Scaling-up phase, 2015-2017
- Up to 8 new cities join the NAMA
- PIP loans play a major role in providing access to finance
- TA on maintenance and MRV
- Facilitation of ESCO participation and further testing in 1-2 cities
- Ongoing outreach to achieve growth in scale
- Transformation phase, 2017-2019
- Widespread implementation in up to 10 additional cities
- Primarily utilizing domestic sources of finance but with scope for further international support
- Major role for ESCOs in providing energy contracting services
Capacity Building Support
The following array of capacity building efforts is included in the NAMA:
- Assistance to city administrations including its municipal public lighting agencies in preparing specific business plans for financing and implementation.
- Technical assistance for municipal public lighting agencies on purchase, installation and maintenance of energy efficient (LED) street lighting.
- Technical assistance for reform of street lighting tax policies/pricing regulations (change of pricing mechanism currently applied to charge cities for their consumption).
- Development of training modules covering introduction of different lighting technologies, street lighting management systems, installation and maintenance, and MRV.
- Establishment of MRV database/MRV implementation.
- Development and testing of ESCO model – enable cities to re-invest the gained savings more easily in cooperation with the private sector, including ESCOs.
- Technical Assistance to energy efficiency performance and safety standards for efficient lighting products (formulation of the EE standards as input for LED street light product performance standards).
- Awareness-raising on usage of energy-efficient street lighting technologies amongst relevant stakeholders.
Source: NAMA News | 9 April 2015