Street lighting charges defended

Energy Australia has defended a $663,270 increase in its bill to Gosford Council for street lighting, in part blaming the Australian Energy Regulator.

Energy Australia spokesman Mr Anthony O'Brien said Energy Australia provided the streetlight service to the community on behalf of local councils and street lighting costs were increased to reflect the true efficient cost of the service.

He stressed that the decision to raise the cost of maintenance and repair of street lights was made by the Australian Energy Regulator based on the fact that local councils were being undercharged for the service by around $10 million per year.

"Energy Australia maintains about 21,000 street lights across the Central Coast on behalf of Wyong and Gosford councils," Mr O'Brien said.

"This includes about 5000 energy efficient globes.

"There are more than 50 different types of lights used in streets, parks and other public places.

"Over the past six months we have replaced and inspected 15,000 of those lights under a pro-active program to prevent faults before they occurred.

"Over that same period about we responded to 680 requests to fix street lights.

"Our average response time for those repairs was less than two days.

"The Australian Energy Regulator, the independent umpire, determines what the efficient cost of this service should be. "

Mr O'Brien said the community expected and deserved a "first class" street lighting service. "It's vital that they get it for their safety and security," Mr O'Brien said.

"Over the past six months, our crews have now completed street lighting upgrades across 100 suburbs across the Gosford and Wyong local government areas.

"We will continue to operate a 24 hour a day reporting and repair service."

Email, 7 May 2010 Anthony O'Brien, Energy Australia