Nov 07 2011
Money and energy saving LED streetlight installations continue under budget and ahead of schedule
Press Release issued – Nov. 7, 2011
LED streetlights now installed from North 65th street
in Seattle all the way through Shoreline
SEATTLE – In late September of this year, Seattle City Light began installing LED streetlights on residential streets from North 65th Street in Seattle all the way to the northern boundary of City Light’s service territory in Shoreline. The latest round of installations brings the total of installed LED streetlights to 18,000. This is ahead of the original schedule of 15,000 installations by the end of this year and nearly $5 million under budget. The savings are a result of the decreasing cost of the fixtures which are purchased each year instead of all at once.
“As our city continues to look for ways to save money, our new LED streetlights are already saving more than $300,000 each year and with the latest round of installations the annual savings is expected to grow to nearly $900,000,” said Councilmember Bruce Harrell, Chair of the Council’s Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee. “These and future savings can be used to help fund libraries, social services and parks, they will pay for themselves in less than 10 years.”
In February of 2012, Seattle City Light is scheduled to begin installation of LED streetlights at the southern end of its service territory all the way up to Brandon Street in South Seattle. By the end of 2014, all of the City’s residential streetlights will be converted to LED. Once all 41,000 residential lights are installed, City Light expects a $2.4 million reduction in operating costs each year.
Customers seem to like the LED streetlights. City Light surveys have found that 85 percent of residents are satisfied with the new lighting and City Light has received complaints on less than 2 percent of the installations to date. The most recognizable change of the LED streetlights is the color of the light. The old high-pressure sodium streetlights had an amber hue, while the new LED streetlights have a hue that is more natural and comparable to moonlight.
City Light already is looking at ways to enhance its mobile site. Customers who use it are encouraged to send feedback and suggestions for potential additions to webteam.scl@seattle.gov.
As Chair of City Light, I have demanded that our customers have access to the same information that I have relative to the opportunities and challenges that face City Light. The public owns the utility so I wanted the public to exercise its vested interest in the plans of the utility. Over the past year, the City Light Review Panel has met 19 times in their work on developing City Light’s strategic plan. You may recall that the City Light Review Panel is a nine member group of key customer advocates whose job is to provide input and recommendations to City Light as the Strategic Plan is developed. If done correctly, this plan will serve as a six-year road map for City Light’s investments and operations. Prior to my initiation of these efforts, this kind of intense planning for an integrated Strategic Plan had never been done. Should we build a Smart Grid? Should we build another substation for load growth? How do we accommodate the onset of Electrical Vehicles? How much do we invest in our transmission lines, distribution lines, conservation plans, etc…? What should be the right portfolio mix of renewable energy purchases? These are complex issues and we not only want public input, we want to educate the public on the myriad of issues our utility faces. 
SEATTLE – The Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee, chaired by Councilmember Bruce Harrell, will host a discussion of City Light’s continued roll out of LED streetlights and where they will be installed next. The discussion will include an analysis of cost and energy savings and emerging technologies such as adaptive lighting controls which enables the brightness of streetlights to be remotely adjusted based on activity in an area. 
