LED Street Lights
About
About LED Street Lights
LED lights consume a fraction of the electricity consumed by metal halide or high pressure sodium lights to produce an equivalent amount light. LED street lights offer advantages over older lighting technologies:
LED street lights save energy. LEDs can reduce electricity consumption for street lighting by 75%. For example, this project will replace a 70 watt high-pressure sodium bulb with a 30 watt LED. Doing so will reduce the Town’s electricity consumption for street lighting by roughly 330,000 kWh per year. According to the EPA’s greenhouse gas calculator, this is equivalent to not using 27,000 gallons of gasoline a year.
LED fixtures will save Scarborough money. Implementing this project offers significant financial benefits to the Town. Before purchasing the lights the Town paid Central Maine Power a monthly lease fee for each fixture in addition to the cost of electricity. The conversion is expected to save Scarborough about $92,000 a year in lease payments and up to $41,000 a year in delivery and energy supply costs. Even though the Town will now be required to maintain the lights we don't expect this to be a significant cost because LED lights have very long lives and extremely low failure rates. The return on investment (ROI) for phases I and II of the project is 4.5 years.
Project
The Project
The project will roll out in two phases. The first phase will focus on replacing the cobra head street lights mounted on wooden utility poles and the implementation of lighting controls. The second phase is pending approval from council for the FY19 budget and will focus on updating decorative lights such as those found lining the streets in residential developments and implementing adaptive traffic controls at Dunstan corner.
The Town conducted a competitive process in order to select a partner able to assist with the development and implementation of this work. After carefully reviewing proposals from four firms, the Town selected TEN Connected Solutions (TCS). Their lighting and technology experts have helped staff develop specifications for the lighting equipment to be used in the project and have provided technical information to assist with the selection of the equipment. The Town has brought in local lighting expert and Scarborough resident, James Hebert of Colby Company Engineering to provide third party review of the project and provide independent analysis of the technical details.
In addition to Colby Company Engineering, other local firms participating in the project include:
- Bernstein, Schur who provided legal advice regarding the the purchase of the street lighting equipment from CMP
- Casco Bay Electric and On Target whose crews will be replacing the existing street lighting equipment with new, Town-owned equipment
LED Info
LED Fixtures Selected
In collaboration with engineers from TCS and Colby Company Engineering, Town staff evaluated streetlights submitted for review by Leotek, AEL, Cooper, Cree, and Affinity. Based on the field evaluation and the technical information provided by the manufacturers, Town staff selected to install streetlights manufactured by Cree Lighting. These provided the best lighting quality and offer the greatest energy savings of all the models submitted. The lights installed in all residential areas produce light at 3000K, which is a warm, yellow light similar to what comes from the high pressure sodium lights they will replace. This follows the recommendations of the American Medical Association. The Cree RSW lights we have selected are certified "Dark Sky Approved" by the International Dark Skies Association.
Along Route One and the industrial area of Washington Avenue, the Town will install 4000k Cree RSW fixtures. Town staff selected the 4000k color temperature to be consistent with state highway lighting, the enhancement of business visibility, and for the industrial areas, safety.
Lighting Controls
The Town is installing an advanced lighting control system by Echelon. This system will allow staff to control the output of streetlights in order to conserve energy and reduce light pollution. It will also alert staff to any problems or malfunctions within the light and allow crews to respond quickly.
Demonstration Sites
Information & Locations
In order to give community members the opportunity to provide feedback, we have set up three demonstration sites. These sites are designed to demonstrate the selected Cree RSW fixtures and color temperatures. The sites will be available to view starting May 1, 2018 through the end of May, 2018. Below are the locations and details of the demonstration sites. Please email Scarborough Public Works at pwinfo@scarboroughmaine.org or call us at 207-730-4400 to leave feedback and/or ask questions about the demonstration sites.