A switch to LED street lighting is under consideration by township officials.
Mapleton council heard a proposal on March 4 for streetlight replacement in the municipality from Jeff Barton of Local Authority Services (LAS) and Michelle Hjort, associate director of business development for RealTerm Energy.
CAO Patty Sinnamon explained council will also consider a proposal from a competing supplier at a future meeting.
LAS is an auxiliary group to AMO that works with municipalities on energy supply partnerships such as bulk purchasing power, natural gas or diesel fuel and selling it back at costs to help moderate commodity increases and save money.
Barton explained LAS began offering a street lighting program in March of 2013 after investigating the technology for more than five years.
“A lot of municipalities were asking about LED technology and LAS investigated the marketplace beginning in 2008,” said Barton, adding LED technology has only recently become viable for street lighting.
“Even two or three years ago, the technology wasn’t there. That all changed about a year and a half ago,” he stated.
Barton said LAS has identified a supplier, U.S.-based Cree LED, and formed a partnership with RealTerm Energy to deliver the program.
Hjort said LED lighting systems use about 50 per cent less energy than current technology, resulting in significant savings.
“It certainly does make for a good business case,” given anticipated increases in energy costs, she noted.
In terms of savings, Hjort said Mapleton could expect to see around a 67% reduction in the energy costs for street lighting, which represents about 20% of the municipality’s total power costs.
Barton said a study done by RealTerm projects Mapleton’s current annual spending of $71,000 on street light electricity and maintenance will go down to about $21,000.
Also, he notes, “in every instance this study has proven to be a worst-case scenario.”
Hjort said RealTerm will work with the township to ensure their power bill is properly adjusted by the supplier.
“And this is important because it’s been a hassle for a lot of municipalities,” she said.
Hjort explained the municipality could finance the cost of the switch itself or RealTerm would do it for them.
She said the company offers an escrow-financing program, which allows municipalities to use their energy costs savings to pay for the replacement project.
She said the escrow option is, “very attractive to municipalities that either don’t have the money or are approaching their debt ceiling or have other big projects on the way.”
The option requires no money up front and “we take on risk and maintenance for the first 10 years,” she explained, adding the new lights would also be under warranty for the first 10 years.
“What happens after 10 years?” asked councillor Andy Knetsch.
“Your payback on LEDs is 4.6 years and because they’re going to last for 20, you get a lot of gravy after,” said Hjort.
Barton said the lights are rated for 22.6 six years and “they don’t just die, they slowly fade over time.”
Sinnamon said a meeting with another supplier would be scheduled at a future meeting.
“Anything that you can see potential savings in, you really have to step back and take a real close look,” commented Mayor Bruce Whale.
