Results from six LED streetlight replacements in Maine, New York and Massachusetts showed a collective savings of nearly $1 million per year in electricity, according to results reported by Ubicquia and RealTerm Energy.
The projects involved LED installations along with more advanced controls for dimming the lights and gathering environmental data. Power consumption across the six cities was found to have been reduced by 69 percent.
According to the most recent data from a Department of Energy (DOE) report, streetlights went from 28 percent LED to nearly 49 percent between 2016 and 2018. The DOE recognizes that adding advanced controls to allow for scheduling and dimming reduces power consumption even further. Many cities take the opportunity to add sensors to streetlights while they’re installing the new lights, giving them the ability to track information such as air quality, pedestrian traffic and more.
“Pepperell is strongly committed to climate change issues and considered converting to LEDs as an opportunity to reduce energy consumption. We have also declared ourselves a Dark Sky friendly community and strive to eliminate unneeded nighttime lighting,” said Andrew MacLean, the town administrator of Pepperell, Mass., in a press release from Ubicquia and RealTerm. “This conversion reduces nighttime lighting and glare without compromising the public safety benefits of street lighting.”
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Sources: Government Technology, U.S. Department of Energy
