New LED streetlights expected to save Norwich $358,000 per year
Norwich — City streets are brighter at night, and people’s front yards and bedroom windows are darker now, with the installation of 4,982 new energy-efficient LED streetlights expected to save the city $358,217 — a projection higher than initially anticipated, Norwich Public Utilities officials said.
NPU spokesman Chris Riley said Friday that only 12 poles at the Route 2 Viaduct that skirts downtown remain to be changed. He said that work will take only about a half day but must be coordinated with state crews.
“NPU’s new LED streetlights will provide our community with financial, environmental and public safety benefits for years to come,” acting General Manager Chris LaRose said. “The successful completion of this project is great news for our customers and the taxpayers in Norwich.”
The Board of Public Utilities Commissioners held a public hearing Tuesday on the technicality of setting new rates the city will pay for streetlights, with the city’s total monthly bills projected to drop from the old system of $54,872.15 per month to the new calculation of $25,020.73 per month.
“Just on the public lights alone, the ones along the street the city pays for, this will save 180,000 kilowatt hours per month, just on this initiative alone,” Jeff Brining, NPU division manager for customer service, told the utilities commission Tuesday.
The new rates, approved unanimously, will take effect in February, bringing partial savings to this year’s budget before the full savings kicks in for the 2019-20 fiscal year, which starts July 1. Brining said the expected savings is higher than NPU’s initial savings estimated last summer.
“So, they’ll be ahead for this fiscal year, and significantly ahead for next fiscal year,” Brining said of the city’s anticipated savings.
Brining said the new lights can be directed better in specific directions, whether straight down or to the side for lighting parking lots or other areas. In a bit of a show-and-tell, he showed the commission examples of the old high-pressure sodium streetlights and the new lights. Pictures projected on a screen showed Chestnut Street in front of the Chestnut Street Playhouse, with one yellow-tinged old light and a nearby roof brightly lit, and a second showing an LED white light projected straight down on the roadway surface.
“One of the advantages of these lights from an environmental point of view is the black sky,” Brining said. “That means you’re not creating light pollution. You’re lighting the surface. If you can’t see the lightbulb in the LED, then it’s not lighting the area where you’re at. It’s not lighting the sky. It’s not lighting people’s yards. So that’s a nice aesthetic to this technology, as well.”
Operations and maintenance costs also will be much lower but not eliminated, Brining said. The new lights are expected to last 10 years.
The city will pay for use of streetlights, and NPU is offering the new lights to businesses for parking lots and private driveways and roads.
The LED streetlight conversion project has a budget of $1.8 million and has not impacted NPU’s existing residential or commercial electric rates, NPU officials said. NPU’s contractor for the project, Tanko Lighting, has completed identical projects throughout the state and region, including Jewett City, Groton, East Lyme and New London.
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