FAYETTEVILLE : Cost savings touted by LED proponents
Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008
Fayetteville city officials are looking at saving money over the long haul by using pricey, energy-efficient bulbs and fixtures in street lights.
Two companies are testing light-emitting diode, or LED, lights on a few of the 4, 118 street lights in town to see if the technology should replace lamps produced by high-pressure sodium, mercury vapor and metal halide.
“We’re wanting to get the one that works the best,” said Perry Franklin, the city’s transportation superintendent. “It may take a year or two to fight the battle and say to SWEPCO, ‘How can you say no to this ?’ It’s going to take some time to get there.” Southwestern Electric Power Co. isn’t saying no. The Shreveport-based company, which supplies power to western Arkansas, is studying LEDs, said Peter Main, a company spokesman. Last year, it ran tests that didn’t go well on compact fluorescent lights at a site in Bossier City, La. Now, LEDs are being tested in the Louisiana town.
“It’s new technology, and we’re testing it in terms of performance in the field,” Main said.
If LEDs pass those tests and the power companies agree to use them, the financial impact would be huge for Fayetteville. The city expects to pay Ozarks Electric Cooperative Corp. in Fayetteville and SWEPCO about $ 475, 000 this year for street lights.
LED proponents say the lights, popularized by toys and electronics, use half the electricity of traditional lamps.
LEDs, if they reduce enough energy consumption, could put Fayetteville in position to go to the power companies and ask them to reduce the monthly flat fees charged for street lights. The state’s Public Service Commission would have to approve any new LED street-light fee.
“I’m wanting to see that meter save me 75 percent on electricity and still have the right amount of light hitting the pavement,” Franklin said. “Then the question is: What’s the light going to cost me ? You need to save enough to pay for it in two or three years.” UP-FRONT COST LED bulbs and fixtures cost far more than other lights initially, starting at $ 300 for the least expensive bulbs retrofitted into existing fixtures to more than $ 1, 000 for the most energy-efficient new fixtures. LEDs require less than half as much electricity to produce the same amount of light. Ozarks Electric Cooperative is intrigued but not sold on LED street lights, said Chris Vaught, the company’s engineering manager.
“We definitely want to learn more about it, but as the technology evolves the price goes down,” Vaught said. “We don’t know how long these fixtures are going to hold up. That’s one reservation we have.” The companies testing in Fayetteville are Green Lighting Co. and DaTran Corp.
Green Lighting of Rogers has its LED fixtures near the city’s waste transfer station and the administration building on the University of Arkansas campus, and at the Fayetteville Public Library’s parking garage.
“The ones in the garage are simply awesome,” said library Director Louise Schaper.
DaTran of Broken Arrow, Okla., put its LED components in existing light fixtures near the intersection of Joyce Boulevard and Vantage Drive.
“We’d like to have a precedence case in Northwest Arkansas to show people what Fayetteville has,” said Steve Campbell, DaTran’s president. “We want them to become the technology bed and then work with other cities to get it.
“ Someone has to take the lead,” he said. “Fayetteville has already started that process.” John Coleman, Fayetteville’s sustainability coordinator, said the city is a good place to figure out how to make LEDs work best in street lights.
The city bills itself as being at the forefront of sustainability efforts. It’s the only city in the state with a sustainability coordinator.
Reducing energy consumption is a key aspect of sustainability — a term used in business, industry and government that refers to finding ways to operate without hurting the environment.
“If we can be one of the first cities to capitalize on this, that’s great,” Coleman said. “We’re not going to jump off the cliff because it’s the sexy thing to do.” Five years ago, the city switched its traffic signals to LEDs, and now it saves about $ 53, 000 annually in electricity costs, Coleman said. Hundreds of cities in the U. S. have switched traffic signals to LEDs, including Bentonville, Rogers and Springdale. Far fewer have changed street lights. Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan, was among the first, changing 1, 400 downtown street lights and saving about $ 100, 000 a year in energy costs, said Annie Strickler, a spokesman for ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, an international association in Toronto.
CHANGING BULBS It took Billie McDonald roughly three minutes to raise himself up in a white bucket and replace a 100-watt, high-pressure sodium bulb on Maple Street in Fayetteville.
“I’m done. It didn’t take long,” said McDonald, a SWEPCO subcontractor who repairs fixtures or replaces bulbs in six to 10 street lights a day.
“Sometimes these lights will last several years, and sometimes I was up there changing the same light last year,” he said.
LED proponents contend the street lights will last about 10 years, four to five times longer than incandescent bulbs. The more expensive LED bulbs and fixtures will pay for themselves in two years to three years, Campbell said.
“After that, it’s pure savings,” he said. “The proof is on the pole.” Only a few Northwest Arkansas cities use LEDs other than for traffic signals.
Bentonville replaces burnedout street lights with high-pressure sodium bulbs, said Paul Kellenbarger, the city’s electric department manager. But the city installed LEDs on Southeast 16 th Street lights near Moberly Lane.
IntenCity Lighting of Dardanelle wanted to show off its LEDs, he said.
“The jury is still out on LED street lights,” Kellenbarger said. “I know the energy savings are there, but it’s the life of the bulb that we don’t know.
“ We’re just going to see how long they’ll let us have them and see what the service on them is.” The 103 blue lights along the Springdale Municipal Airport are LEDs put in six months ago, said Airport Manager James Smith. They cost about $ 100 apiece, he said.
“We haven’t had any trouble with them,” Smith said. “I’m giving them a year to run, and then I’m going to see how much electricity we saved.” Coleman, Fayetteville’s sustainability coordinator, said he isn’t certain if LEDs are worth the start-up cost, but the technology is improving.
Among the 4, 118 street lights in the city, about 150 are metered, including those at the Walton Arts Center parking lot. The city could switch those lights to LEDs without an agreement with Ozarks Electric or SWEPCO.
“These companies are really interested in getting their products in cities,” Coleman said. “We’ve got 4, 000 street lights and if we can prove it’s successful, then you’ll start seeing them getting into these other cities.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
