The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has started installing LED streetlights in Southampton, N.Y., NYPA said on April 20.
The energy efficiency project is part of Smart Street Lighting NY, a new statewide program announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo in his 2018 State of the State address that calls for at least 500,000 streetlights throughout the state to be replaced with LED technology by 2025.
The streetlight upgrade and replacement project will save Southampton taxpayers nearly $248,000 in annual energy and maintenance costs. The lighting upgrade will cost $1.5 million and calls for the replacement of over 2,700 streetlights, as well as nearly 300 additional parking lot and decorative fixtures throughout the town. NYPA is also increasing the number of streetlights on a 1.3-mile section of Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton, to increase safety.
The Smart Street Lighting NY program has the potential to reduce energy consumption across the state by 482 gigawatt hours annually, saving taxpayers $87 million a year, drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving the quality of light and safety of communities across the state, NYPA noted. The program directly supports Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030, based on 1990 levels.
NYPA noted it is leading the interdisciplinary and interagency initiative with the Department of Public Service, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Department of Environmental Conservation and other state agencies to offer a one-stop-shop solution for municipalities to replace inefficient streetlights with the cleaner, more efficient LED technology and provide technical expertise on design, procurement and construction.
NYPA is working with cities, towns, villages and counties throughout New York to fully manage and implement a customer’s transition to LED streetlight technology. NYPA notes that it, “provides upfront financing for the project, with payments to NYPA made in the years following from the cost-savings created by the reduced energy use of the LED streetlights. NYPA is also willing to finance the purchase of street lighting systems from a municipality’s utility if needed.”
NYPA’s government customers are “provided a wide-array of lighting options to help meet their individual needs, including specifications on the lights to incorporate SMART technology, which can be used for dozens of other functions, such as cameras and other safety features, weather sensors, Wi-Fi and energy meters,” said NYPA.
Smart Street Lighting NY is the latest advance under Cuomo’s BuildSmart NY initiative to increase energy efficiency in municipalities and publicly owned buildings and it builds upon NYPA’s commitment in June 2017 to develop $300 million annually in energy efficiency and renewable measures at public facilities by 2019, NYPA said.
