The tunnel lighting system not only affects the safety of tunnel traffic, but also is the key to reducing the construction and operation cost of highway tunnel. Under the premise of ensuring the safety of the tunnel traffic, it is necessary to effectively reduce the power consumption of lighting system. Energy -saving studies based on energy-saving tunnel lighting lamps, parameters optimization of tunnel lighting system, and intelligent control were summarized and analyzed. A more energy-saving and efficient scheme was proposed, i.e. optimizing the installation parameters of LED luminaires of all sections of tunnel with the purpose of saving energy, under the condition of tunnel lighting meeting the traffic requirements, then, stepless dimming control was carried out through the installation-parameter-optimized lighting system. Finally, CAN bus was used to control and manage the power of every LED luminaire, so as to maximize the energy saving of the tunnel lighting system.