ENGIE, a leading company in renewable energy in Brazil and the city government of Curitiba, this Wednesday, (March 1) officially signed an agreement beginning public lighting PPP operations in the state capital.
The agreement was signed at city hall with the presence of the municipality’s mayor, Rafael Greca, together with the chief executive officer of ENGIE Soluções, Jacques-Olivier Klotz, among other representatives of the company and city government.
The agreement will run for 23 years and provide for the operation and maintenance of the city’s street lighting together with the expansion of its illumination infrastructure which currently has 160 thousand lighting points.
“We are very happy with this partnership. Curitiba’s new public lighting will bring a series of benefits to the population and municipality, among these, improved safety, efficiency and sustainability. In addition, a set of initiatives to be implemented will result in signficant savings in the city’s energy bill”, declares Jacques-Olivier Klotz.
The auction for Curitiba’s public lighting concession was held in September 2022, ENGIE offering a charge worth R$ 1.1 million with a 71% discount in relation to the reference price in the tender notice.
The Agreement provides for the installation of LED technology, installation of an operational control center and the execution of a series of specific projects for floodlighting civic monuments. The new illumination will ensure a reduction of at least 33% in the municipal energy bill for street lighting, thus optimizing costs for the city government.
Experience in the sector – A leader in renewable energy in Brazil, ENGIE currently operates more than 1 million lighting points worldwide, 130 thousand of them in Brazil – of which 90 thousand in Uberlândia (MG) and 40 thousand in Petrolina (PE).
The company has already invested more than R$ 100 million in modernizing the public lighting infrastructure in the two cities since it took over the concessions. More than 120 thousand conventional light fixtures have been changed for LED technology and there has been an expansion in the public illumination networks with the inclusion of new ligjhting and improvements in quality.
The conclusion of the modernization of the street lighting in Uberlândia has seen a reduction of more than 50% in the municipal light bill, representing a reduction estimated at more than R$ 1 million over the course of the year by local government authorities. The monthly saving is greater than the cost of operating and the maintenance of the project for the municipality, the city modernizing its public lighting infrastructure and guaranteeing signficant improvements to both population and environment without increasing expenditures in the sector. Uberlândia has the second highest population of all the cities in the state of Minas Gerais.