Smart Lux wins Minas Gerais street lighting PPP

The Smart Lux consortium has won an auction for a public-private partnership (PPP) contract to manage and operate street lighting in Nova Lima, a city in Minas Gerais state.

It will invest 58mn reais (US$11.5mn) during the 13-year contract period. It will modernize around 20,000 public lighting points around the city, benefitting some 95,000 people, the regional development ministry said in a statement.

The consortium offered to charge no more than 280,000 reais per month for the service, a 56.2% discount of on the reference price, beating five other firms during the auction. 

The number of street lighting PPPs in Brazil has risen rapidly as municipalities seek to reduce fixed costs, with state-run banks like BNDES and Caixa Econômica Federal helping local governments to structure the contracts. 

Around 70 street lighting PPPs have been signed in the country to date, entailing total projected investments of 22bn reais, while 400 other PPPs are in the process of being structured, according to the most recent figures from street lighting association Abcip.