City trimming its electrical usage

The City of Charlottetown continues to make progress on lowering its electrical bill by slowly changing its street lights from the existing lights over to LED.

Right now, the city has a variety of light types, with varying wattage ratings, depending on the location and intended purpose of the light.

There are 3,081 street lights in the city, comprised of halogen, high-pressure sodium, lantern style and LED fixtures. Of those 3,081 street lights, 1,168 are currently LED.

Scott Adams, manager of the city’s public works department, recently told council’s standing committee on public works that the focus of the city and Maritime Electric remains on changing the remaining 1,913 light fixtures over to LED. This year, the city identified 266 light fixtures to replace, with the primary focus on arterial and collector roads before moving into the residential areas. In the coming years, it is planned that Maritime Electric will complete about 300 LED changeovers per year. It will take until 2027 to complete the changeover.

The city expects to reduce its electric bill from $6,906 this year to $3,200 this year and will continue to save $45,000 per year with the savings rising from there. Adams said it’s estimated that during the six to seven years it will take to complete the LED changeover the city will save, in reduced electrical usage, $945,000 and, once the system is entirely changed to LED, the city will see about a $300,000 in savings per year.