City replaces 8,370 streetlights with LEDs

Niagarafallsreview.ca
Feb. 29, 2016
By Ray Spiteri

For the second time in 30 years, the same Niagara Falls utility company has modernized nearly all of the city’s streetlights.

Ground Aerial Maintenance Service recently completed a project that saw the municipality’s older high-pressure sodium streetlights replaced with 8,370 LED (light-emitting diode) lights.

City staff has said the project would decrease energy demand by 31 per cent.

“There is going to be savings on energy costs for sure, but we don’t know to what extent, at this stage,” said Geoff Holman, the city’s director of municipal works.

GAMS, a long-time utility and line services company, was also responsible for the streetlight conversion in Niagara Falls in the mid 1980s from fluorescent to the orange high-pressure sodium lights.

This time, GAMS had to race against the clock to get the work done.

The project cost $3.9 million and the city borrowed $1.4 million to help pay for it.

The municipality was successful in getting $840,000 from a SaveONenergy LED subsidy program, but one of the conditions of the program was that the project had to be completed by the end of the year.

Last March, council approved a staff recommendation giving the project contract to RealTerm Energy, which provides turnkey services for LED streetlight projects that include everything from design to selection of the installation company, along with doing the audit at the end of the process.

RealTerm, which has carried out similar work for other municipalities and supplied the fixtures and mapping, hired GAMS to install the new LED lights.

Holman said GAMS did an “excellent job” of installing the lights within the tight time frame.

“At one time, they were putting up a new streetlight every 15 minutes,” he said.

Larry Vaughan, vice-president of operations at GAMS, said during the project’s peak, they were installing about 1,000 lights a week.

At the same time, GAMS was also installing LED lights in Thorold.

“Some questioned whether we could do this,” said Vaughan. “We not only did Niagara Falls, we also did another community.”

Because of the time restraints, council decided not to put the project out for tender.

Some questioned the way the project was handled.

At the time, staff said if the city followed its regular procurement process, the municipality would run out of time and could lose some of the grant money.

Vaughan said the new lights were up by around mid December.

“Here you have a local company that hired locally, did the job locally, and all of the money is staying in town because we all live in the region,” he said.

Holman said some lights still need to be updated, while a couple poles have some wiring issues that have to be dealt with. But upwards of 98 or 99 per cent of all the lights have been replaced, he said.

He said the public feedback has been favourable, including comments about better quality lighting.

Municipalities continue to look at energy costs when it comes to its streetlights and facilities, said Holman.

“We’re looking at ways to reduce costs or at least avoid future energy increases. There are incentives out there that can be accessed and we’re well advised to take advantage of them.”

Holman said staff is preparing a report to provide to council with more detailed information. He said the report will likely go to council at either the March 22 or April 12 meeting.