An additional hour of lighting can cost almost ₴10 million for Mykolaiv budget

In Mykolaiv, the cost of extending the lighting after 23:00 has been estimated at ₴10 million a year. Photo: Dmytro Skorokhodov

An additional hour of lighting will cost the budget of the Mykolaiv City Council ₴10 million a year.

This information was announced during a session of the Mykolaiv City Council by Ihor Nabatov, First Deputy Director of the State Housing and Communal Services Department, according to NikVesti.

It is worth noting that at the last session, deputy Tetiana Dombrovska asked whether it was possible to extend the evening lighting for an hour after 23:00. The mayor promised to look into the matter.

At yesterday's meeting, she noted that she had filed a deputy request, to which deputy Yurii Andriienko replied that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the lights were partially turned off, and the main highways were still on.

Mykolaiv City Council member Tetiana Dombrovska. Photo: NikVesti

«I will ask again. Can we still give people this hour before the curfew when they return?» asked Tetiana Dombrovska.

The mayor replied that the lighting on the main roads was operated through one lantern as a cost-saving measure.

«Now we have instructions to save electricity as much as possible in the city. Of course, we can consider keeping the lights on all night,» said the mayor.

During the discussion, Ihor Nabatov, deputy director of the housing and communal services department, said that they had calculated the amount the city would spend on additional lighting. It is 10 million hryvnias per year.

«On average, over 9 months, if you look at the statistics, one hour of lighting costs 27,568 hryvnias. If we multiply this by 365 days, it turns out that we need an additional 10 million a year for one hour,» the official said.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. Photo: NikVesti

The mayor asked to send the calculations to the deputies to consider this issue at the next session, if it is justified.

«I also receive letters from people, mostly those who work in the service sector. They work until 23:00 and worry when they go home that it is dark. Perhaps we will do what we used to do before, switch on the lights through one lantern,» added Oleksandr Sienkevych.

As a reminder, in 2024, in order to save electricity, Mykolaiv planned to stop lighting the adjacent territories and executive buildings, as well as reduce lighting on the streets and in parks.

In May 2024, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych shared plans to completely replace the city's lighting with LED technology to minimise electricity consumption.

In particular, in 2023 , 9,000 outdoor sodium lamps were replaced with LED lighting in the city.