Street lamps turned off for summer in Minsk streets and yards

"The energy saving programme is presented to us every year. A third of Minsk street lamps will be turned off at night from May 17 until August 31 in connection with it”, — said the chief engineer of “Minsk City Light” Dzmitry Syramalotau in an interview with ERB.

The lighting will be turned off from 12 a.m. till 5 a.m. The Council of Ministers has approved the economy measures until 2012. (decree #248 of February 22, 2010 “On energy resources saving by 2012”.)
It concerns streets and parts of yards. It is caused by the lighting scheme in the first place.

“External lighting is often common for streets and yards. Yard lighting may be turned off if street lamps are partially turned off because they use the same power source”.

Only a third of street lamps have to be turned off. It means that if there are three street lamps, only two of them will work, explains Dzmitry Uladzimiravich.
However, it was pitch dark is some yards in Zhukouski Street: not a single lamp was turned on.

“I was driving into my yard full of cars right at midnight. Hush! Everything got turned off. It was pitch dark in the yard stuffed with cars. I was afraid I would scratch all the cars around me. It was as dark as if I were in a forest. The street lamps were not turned on later”, - said an inhabitant of Zhukouski Street Aleh to us.

“Minsk Street Light” has explained the situation by small accidents; however, they note that lighting in yards will remain in summer, although it will be minimal.

Dzmitry Syramalotau: “The lighting started to be tuned off on May 17 and probably there were some accidents after the winter season. We are receiving complaints and we are solving such problems. You know, it may not be impeccable. Of course yards need to be lit. But they have to be lit partially”.
The measures are expected to help save about 2.7 millions kwh which is about 400 thousand dollars.