Local governments hurt by rising energy prices

In local governments, electricity costs account for about 60 percent of overall costs. Price increases of several hundred percent, therefore, hit municipal budgets hard. In order not to pass these costs entirely on to residents and increase various services, more and more local governments are looking for savings. Some are deciding to turn off street lights at night, while others are investing in upgrading them. Replacing lamps with LEDs and integrating them with intelligent management systems can save around 30-40 percent. There are also an increasing number of inquiries about modernizing public buildings.

A survey conducted in the first half of the year among 77 cities by the Association of Polish Cities shows that the effects of electricity price hikes on city budgets and the municipal sector will amount, depending on the size of the city, to several to tens of millions of zlotys a year. On a national scale, that's about PLN 5 billion.

"Rising electricity prices particularly affect the city or municipal governments, if only because, on average, for them, the cost of electricity is 60 percent of the total cost. As a result, there are more and more public tenders for the modernization of street lighting, where we can apply smart city solutions, thanks to which we can seamlessly manage the individual area of lighting," Paweł Boryś, business development manager at Trilux Polska, a lighting solutions provider, said.

(Newseria)