Streetlight upgrades bringing savings for city
Energy costs drop from more than $2 million in 2015 to $1.19 last year, beating estimates
St. Catharines’ massive conversion of its streetlights to LED is saving more in maintenance and energy costs than expected, the city says.
The city’s streetlight energy costs dropped from more than $2 million in 2015 to $1.19 million in 2017. Those savings were $6,000 more than expected, with the conversions still ongoing in 2018.
Maintenance costs were also less, with projected savings at $350,000 and actual savings in 2017 at more than $398,000.
The city’s conversion project started in November 2015 and wrapped up seven months ahead of schedule in May 2018.
St. Catharines has 14,791 street lights and the city said about 93 per cent of them are now LED. The remaining lights are decorative street lights and post-top lights which are more expensive to replace. They cost $600 to $2,500 a fixture versus $250 to $500 for the old cobra-head lights.
City staff will report back to city council about how much it would cost to complete the conversion and the anticipated energy savings.
The project was budgeted at $7 million but ended up with a price tag of $7.15 million due to the discovery that some street lights lacked in-line fusing, which the Electrical Safety Authority required.
Alectra Power Services is doing some rewiring work for the required fusing and expects to be done by July 31.