Sundre residents might have noticed over the past couple of weeks a FortisAlberta crew working on street lights throughout the municipality.
Following last year's successful pilot project to install new energy-saving LED street light heads in six municipalities throughout the province, FortisAlberta recently began deploying across the province some 80,000 fixtures, among which about 400 are being mounted in Sundre to replace the aging and dated high pressure sodium bulbs, said Natasha Russell, a FortisAlberta communications advisor.
The provincewide project represents a roughly $30-million investment from the company, which operates in approximately 200 municipalities that each have a franchise agreement with FortisAlberta. While individual communities will bear some of the cost of installation, savings from the low energy consumption lights will eventually absorb that expense, she said.
Vic Pirie, Sundre's director of finance and administration, told the Round Up last week that the average cost per street light will drop by about $6 per year per unit. The distribution, transmission and energy costs combined used to add up to about $285 per year per light, while the conversion to LED will lower that cost to a little more than $279.
So even though the conversion will cost about $23 per street light, the overall reduction in transmission and energy costs will save the municipality money down the road, he said.
The franchise fee, which council reviews and approves every year, was increased in 2017 to eight per cent from seven per cent last year. Council breaks that revenue down towards offsetting the mill rate as well as setting funds aside in infrastructure reserves. From a budget perspective, he said that would this year represent ó based on last year's average consumption rates ó about $141,000 total revenue, with about $88,000 going to minimize the tax increase and the remaining roughly $53,000 being transferred to reserves.
The outgoing high-pressure sodium fixtures spewed in all directions a light with more of an orange hue, whereas the new light-emitting diode (LED) units directionally project straight down on the street a colour temperance of 3,000 Kalvin that is slightly whiter than a typical incandescent bulb used at home, Russell said.
"The (LED) fixtures are dark sky friendly with zero up-light, which means less light pollution and sky glow as the light is directed downward."
The newer technology also provides the following: more even and efficient distribution of light and better quality of light resulting in increased safety and security; reduced energy consumption resulting in energy savings and reduced greenhouse emissions; and reduced outages and longer light lifespans resulting in reduced maintenance costs, she said.
The Town of Sundre will save approximately 175,300 kilowatt hours per year, which is equivalent to the following: taking 24 cars off the road; operating 22 average homes; or planting 5,140 trees per year, she said.
"Our customers have been wanting this for a while," she recently told the Round Up during a phone interview.
After last year's successful deployment, FortisAlberta sought and received in March approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission to proceed with a further 131 municipalities, she said.
"We're now in the full swing of getting all of those communities done."
Installation of the new units in Sundre was progressing as planned and work was expected to wrap up around mid-month, she said.
"This is a great initiative that will allow us to continue to improve the energy efficiency of our infrastructure while controlling costs for our customers."
