MedSkyTour – Interreg Euro-MED – Co-funded by the European Union
Good practice Croatia · Karlovac County Partner: I.C.E. City-wide retrofit (energy performance contract)

Smart public lighting modernisation, City of Karlovac

Karlovac renewed its entire public lighting through an energy performance contract: more than 9,000 LED luminaires connected to a central system that dims at night, in line with Croatia’s light-pollution law.

9,083

luminaires modernised city-wide

152

lighting cabinets relocated into transformer stations

0% · ≤3000 K

upward light and colour temperature, as Croatian law requires

2024

installation and commissioning; procurement approved in 2023

The challenge

Outdated lighting with high energy and maintenance costs, no central management or adaptive control, and new national rules on colour temperature, upward light and late-night dimming.

What they did

Instead of isolated upgrades, the city chose one integrated, city-wide solution, approved by the City Council (Glasnik Grada Karlovca No. 9/2023).

  • Smart-ready LED luminaires (technical and decorative), plus retrofit modules where housings were kept
  • Central management system for monitoring, scheduling and dimming
  • Automatic late-night dimming (“svjetlostaj”)
  • Contract requirements on colour temperature, upward light (ULOR) and G-index, in line with EN 13201

Results

Lower electricity and operating costs, less sky glow and glare, compliance with legal limits on upward light and colour temperature, and more transparent, controllable public lighting.

Lessons learned

  1. 1Write the legal requirements on shielding and colour temperature into the contract.
  2. 2Combine them with EN 13201 road-lighting safety standards.
  3. 3Use performance-based contracts to secure long-term efficiency and monitoring.

Can you do it too?

Highly transferable to municipalities with national or regional light-pollution legislation. It works best where:

  • A clear regulatory framework sets the limits
  • Performance-based service models are available
  • A central management system allows monitoring and verification

Why it matters for astrotourism

Although urban, the project reduces upward light and shows that light-pollution control is a prerequisite for sustainable astrotourism.

Photos

[Photo 1 – to be provided by I.C.E.]
[Photo 2 – to be provided by I.C.E.]
[Photo 3 – to be provided by I.C.E.]

Contact

I.C.E. – Institute for Cooperation and Education

Nina Vidic

[contact email]

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