The lights go out at night on most of the motorways in Wallonia in order to save energy against a background of soaring electricity prices. This operation corresponds to a test phase which will last three months with the aim of saving energy while preserving the safety of users. The lights are off from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on the less frequented sections.
The Minister of Energy, Mobility and Infrastructure Philippe Henry, the SPW Mobility and Infrastructure and the LuWa Group proceeded, Monday evening, to extinguish the lighting on the Walloon motorways.
Present in Waremme, on the point of Olye spanning the E40, the actors presented an initiative to optimize energy savings in the public sector, by switching off the lighting of the central berms between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. An extinction made possible thanks to the implementation of the Lights Plan 4.0.
Reducing energy consumption should help mitigate the impact of the crisis
“In the context of the energy crisis, this measure aims both to reduce consumption and to reduce the electricity bill of the public authorities”, announced Friday the Sofico, company which manages 2.700 km of motorways and national in Wallonia.
“We are living in complicated times and reducing energy consumption should make it possible to mitigate the impact of the crisis we are going through. The reflection carried out focused on the safety of road users and the timing of the turning off part of the lighting occurs during the shortest dwell time”, said Minister Philippe Henry.
Areas at risk will remain lit
Twenty thousand light points out of 25,000, those already renovated and modernized, will thus be switched off every night for three months.
After the eastern part of Wallonia, from Liège to Verviers and as far as Bastogne, the center will be affected by this extinction on Tuesday before it is Hainaut’s turn on Wednesday. The areas at risk will remain lit, as will the structuring and non-structuring network: “The conflict zones, where the crossing of motorists occurs, will not be affected for the sake of safety. Concerning the rest of the network, an analysis will be carried out in order to determine the need or not to carry out the same type of action” , adds Denis Cornet, Director of SPW Mobility and Infrastructure.
Minister Philippe Henry also specifies that the measure may change over time. The savings could be estimated at 400,000 euros.
The measure had been requested at the beginning of September by the Walloon government.