IN PICTURES – “Everyone asks us”: the Dordogne energy union turns off our streetlights at night

In his orange anorak, Franck puts on his harness and insulating gloves on the side of the road. The bucket truck is parked right in front of a large lamp post. The technician of Dordogne Departmental Syndicate of Energies, SDE 24is on its third in this small street of Sainte-Eulalie-d’Ans: “Upstairs, you have to identify the correct circuits, and reverse the wires so that the lamp goes from the permanent circuit, lit all night, to the partial circuit. Here, it turns it off between 11 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. “. The small nacelle rises, we see him looking for the wires, connecting them. The bulb lights up. Next.

80,000 streetlights in the Dordogne

Energy sobriety has been advancing at a brisk pace in recent weeks in the Dordogne. Is it the appeal of the President of the Republic at the start of the school year to save energy, or the appeal of the portfolio with the rise in electricity prices? In any case, the municipalities of Dordogne scramble to turn off their streetlights at nightfrom Périgueux and Bergerac to the smallest villages.

“A lot of town halls ask us to turn off part or all of their public lighting at night. Last year we changed the schedules in 25 municipalities, this year we have already done 40 and 60 are pending”
– Alexandre Vial, from SDE 24

But it doesn’t happen by pressing a button. The SDE 24, which manages the department’s 80,000 streetlights, must involve its 15 technicians, spread over three centers in the departmentto come and change one by one the “clocks” of each lamppost. And there are 500 municipalities in the Dordogne.

“We save 60% of ignition hours”

In Sainte-Eulalie-d’Ans, all street lights will be turned off at night. Some busy municipalities choose to keep certain streetlights on all night, at crossroads for example. But the savings are significant on the budget of the municipalities: “We save 60% of hours of ignition between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. It will be a huge saving. We go from 4080 hours lit per year to only around 1700”explains Alexandre Vial, the department head.

The energy syndicate is also gradually changing the light bulbs. 15,000 streetlights in the Dordogne are already in LEDwhich consume much less energy.