When the city of Phoenix wanted to replace nearly 100,000 municipal street lights with high-performance LEDs, it partnered with Ameresco, Inc., an energy efficiency and renewable energy project based in Framingham, Mass., who acted as program manager, designer, and general contractor.
The company was responsible for investigating utility records and GIS maps to establish city ownership and eligibility for street light replacement. In collaboration with the city, the company installed new street light fixtures and photocells citywide, as well as created a new GIS map which will serve as an operations and maintenance (O&M) tool for the city in the future.
The new street lights feature correlated color temperature (CCT) of 2,700°K LEDs – the city’s new standard for street lights – which are expected to reduce electricity by 53% and save nearly $3.5 million annually in energy and maintenance costs.
“We all benefit from improved safety through better lighting technology, energy savings, labor savings from the longer life of the LED technology and environmental savings from reduced power use,” says Phoenix Street Transportation Director Kini Knudson, who adds that the company accomplished the retrofit in a compressed time frame, an additional win for the city.
