Urban Street Light Renovation in Zhangjiagang City, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province
Small street lights reflect major public welfare. This year, Zhangjiagang City in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, has listed the renovation and upgrading of urban street lights as a key livelihood project for 2025. Through an energy management contracting model, over 33,000 street lights in the urban area have been revitalized and upgraded. The project has now entered the final inspection and acceptance stage, with intelligent technologies significantly improving the quality of nighttime lighting in the city.
At 6:30 p.m., as dusk falls and the city lights up, rows of bright yet gentle street lights illuminate the roads for nighttime travelers. "The old street lights had a yellowish tint, and sometimes it was hard to see clearly at night. Now, with brighter lighting, it feels much safer to go out in the evening," said Li Qianshun, a local resident, admiring the new lights.
It is reported that the original street lights in Zhangjiagang’s urban area had been in use for 15 to 20 years, suffering from issues such as aging infrastructure and high failure rates. "This project involved replacing over 24,000 high-pressure sodium lamps on main roads, secondary roads, branch roads, and in open residential areas, along with upgrading more than 9,700 LED fixtures with smart capabilities. All street lights have now been connected to the city’s smart lighting management platform, enabling precise individual light control," explained Zhuang Wanyuan, a staff member of the Municipal Public Service Center.
After the renovation, the average brightness of urban road lighting has approximately doubled, effectively eliminating dark spots during nighttime. The replacement of high-pressure sodium lamps with LED lights has resulted in annual electricity savings of over 35%, a 20% reduction in operation and maintenance costs, and an annual decrease in carbon emissions of approximately 12,000 tons.
Additionally, leveraging technologies such as remote monitoring and AI data analysis, the Zhangjiagang Municipal Public Service Center can now monitor the status of each street light in real time through the smart lighting management platform, enabling automatic fault alerts and task assignments. The platform also allows for tailored lighting strategies based on road classifications and brightness requirements, dynamically adapting to the characteristics of surrounding facilities such as schools, parks, and commercial areas. Furthermore, it supports intelligent on-demand lighting by analyzing temporal patterns of pedestrian and vehicle flow.