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NewStreetlights.com > news > Wisconsin cities test LEDs - 1 March 2010 |
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Wisconsin cities of Waukesha and Madison receive $657,000 in LED streetlight grants and evaluate luminaire vendors
Monday, March 1, 2010
By New Streetlights staff
The Wisconsin cities of Waukesha and Madison have received Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant awards from the U.S. Department of Energy totaling $657,000, which will be used to deploy LED streetlights in the two cities.
The cities are currently testing LED streetlights from BetaLED, Leotek, and LSI and plan to evaluate fixtures from Neptun and U.S. Lighting, among others.
Waukesha plans to replace about 1,000 existing, 150 watt high pressure sodium streetlights with LED streetlights. The city is replacing only city-owned streetlights in Waukesha, not those owned by Wisconsin Electric Power Company (We Energy).
Madison’s federal grant of $100,000 will fund the replacement of approximately 100 existing streetlights.
Both Waukesha and Madison have been testing LED streetlights for nine months, and the municipalities have been evaluating streetlight performance of products from a number of manufacturers. The municipalities are assessing the lights’ performance under conditions of extreme heat, humidity, snow, and ice.
Waukesha has been testing LED streetlights from BetaLED, Leotek, and LSI. The city plans to also test fixtures from Neptune and U.S. Lighting. According to Waukesha project engineer, Katie Jelacic, the city is concurrently evaluating induction streetlights. City officials have already indicated that initial evaluations of the induction lights have not been positive.
Madison is testing lights from BetaLED and Leotek, and city officials plan to evaluate additional fixtures from other manufacturers throughout the year. “We’re still about one year out from full implementation of our streetlight replacement project,” said traffic operations engineer Dan Dettman. Madison is lit by 12,000 streetlights, of which 6,000 are city-owned and utility maintained. The city has not yet set a long-term goal for full streetlight replacement, according to Dettman.
Streetlights currently cost the city of Waukesha over $500,000 annually. Both Waukesha and Madison expect immediate electricity cost savings of at least 40% by switching to LED streetlights.
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