Editor’s Note - In this article written for TAC News, Maureen Van Ravens, Manager of Transportation and Development Engineering, Infrastructure Services, Town of Halton Hills, writes about the streetlights conversion program to reduce overall energy consumption. Prepared on behalf of the TAC Small Municipalities Task Force, this article is part of a series of feature articles on the issues and challenges affecting smaller communities.
Municipalities in Ontario are actively converting high pressure sodium luminaires to light emitting diode (LED) streetlights to reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
The Town of Halton Hills, located 60 kilometres northwest of Toronto with a population of approximately 60,000, is currently converting all its streetlights to LED. The Town is the smallest municipality in population within the Halton Region.
This project aligns with the Mayor’s Community Energy Plan whose main objective is to reduce energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions within the Town facilities and across the community. Converting the Town’s streetlights to LED will make a significant contribution to meeting this objective and reaching the Town’s targets.
The project will be completed in partnership with SouthWestern Energy Inc. (SWE). The capital cost and installation will be financed by SWE and the implementation of the program will be completed by their resources. As part of the project, SWE will apply for the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) incentives to reduce the overall cost to complete the program.
The Town currently has approximately 3880 Cobra Style and 570 Decorative High Pressure Sodium luminaires that will be converted to LED luminaires. The projected total cost to complete this work is $1,800,000. SWE will take the lead in project management and full implementation of the program. They will complete a full audit of current streetlight assets, provide and maintain a schedule for the conversion, ensure regular updates are communicated, recalculate the new energy consumption and apply for IESO incentives.
The program is expected to reduce the overall energy consumption by approximately 55% to 60%. The overall energy savings through Halton Hills Hydro is estimated to be approximately 40%. These savings will be used to pay back SWE for the program. It is anticipated that the payback period for the cost of the program through energy savings will be five years.
The Town commenced the program in September 2015, which should take nine months to complete.
For additional information and questions, contact Maureen Van Ravens, C.E.T., Manager of Transportation and Development Engineering, Town of Halton Hills at maureenv@haltonhills.ca.
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