Metro plans to replace streetlights with LED lighting
LED lighting is expected to save the city $20 million in energy costs over a 10-year period, according to Metro officials.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Residents throughout Davidson County can expect to see new streetlights after Metro Council approved Mayor John Cooper plan.
The initiative will convert 55,000 streetlights to LED lights throughout the city.
“The LED lights are good,” said Charles Roberts, an East Nashville resident.
Roberts knows firsthand how dark and unsafe his neighborhood is when the streetlights aren’t working. He recalls the time the lights were out last month.
“The security going out when it was dark where it was supposed to be light,” said Roberts.
He’s glad the city plans to convert streetlights to energy efficient Led lights. This plan will save the city $20 million in energy costs over a 10-year period, according to Metro officials.
“NDOT and the city pay for essentially the electricity that is consumed by street light fixtures across the city. NES operates and maintains those. So, with this streetlight retrofit, NES is financing the upgrade and then over time, Metro will continue to pay for its energy consumption, as well as over time we’ll pay what’s called a facility charge that essentially cover the costs of these upgraded lights,” said Kendra Abokowitz, the city’s Chief Sustainability & Resilience Officer.
Metro has a 10-year agreement with Nashville Electric Service to replace, install, and maintain the new LED streetlights.
“So, the agreement in this arrangement covers all public streetlights. So, it doesn’t include private streetlights. And what a private street light arrangement would look like is something that’s owned, for example, by a business or an HOA. So, that would not be included in this agreement,” said Abokowitz.
With this retrofit, they’re upgrading the streetlight fixtures with new technology anytime there’s an outage.
“That smart photocell gives us the technology for that streetlight to essentially report back to a software system and so we’ll immediately know when there’s an outage with the installation of this smart photocell and so we’ll no longer have to rely upon hub Nashville or those night drives to report those outages,” said Abokowitz.
Roberts is looking forward to this upgrade.
“Well, I think is actually good because I’ve seen them up in Goodlettsville. And you know the bright light that it brings a lot lighter than these yellow ones,” said Roberts.
Metro officials said collaboration between NES and NDOT is underway now. After they finalize plans for the retrofit, the actual work will begin shortly thereafter.
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