If you notice the streets of Wrangell getting a little brighter at night in the next few months, you can be sure it won’t be because of our Alaskan latitude.
Over the coming months, Wrangell Municipal Light & Power will be installing more than 360 LED streetlights on borough streets. The lights, says Electrical Superintendent Clay Hammer, are more efficient than the high-pressure sodium or mercury vapor lamps currently in use.
The lights, which are funded through an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant for $95,000, and a second grant of $53,400 from the Wrangell Cooperative Association, will save the borough a healthy chunk of money in the future.
“Our current cost, right now, that we’re paying for our streetlights is $45,675 a year,” said borough electric chief Clay Hammer. “When we get done installing all of these, our yearly cost will be $20,837.”
That reduction will give the borough a savings of just under $25,000 annually.
364 of the borough’s 397 streetlights are slated for replacement in the first round of modifications, with the additional 33 lights being upgraded in the coming year.
The lights to be purchased, the LEOTEK GCA1 series, are more than just energy-efficient – they are expandable in ways the city and borough might find useful in the future.
One of those expansions allows utilities that install the fixtures to remotely control the intensity and power usage of the LED lights.
Chris Nye, the Director of Commercial and Industrial Products for LEOTEK, said that the GCA1 fixtures could be used in creative and inventive ways to save money.
“Although the streetlights that we are providing to Wrangell do not currently include one of these systems, they are fully compatible with all of them,” Nye said in an email. “As the control technology improves and the costs come down, in a few years Wrangell may want to evaluate testing one or more of these systems.”
Hammer added that adding that functionality in the future may be something the borough is interested in – though there are other ways to increase efficiency and lifespan that are currently available.
“It’ll depend on how they check out,” Hammer said. “Right now we can take a brighter fixture and install it where a medium light was. Then we can reduce the output of the brighter light and extend the life of the fixture.”
Whatever technology the borough adopts to control light usage, Hammer said the purchase was well thought out with the weather and harsh Southeast Alaska environment in mind.
“It’s a huge commitment and we’re expecting good things from it, so we researched beyond the low bid and discovered that the LEOTEK line was probably the way to go,” Hammer said. “We also contacted the laboratory at Seattle Power and Light and were pleased to find out Seattle is using the same models. Seattle and Wrangell have the same environment, so it meant a lot.”
By going with LED lamps on virtually all of the city streets in Wrangell, the borough finds it self well ahead of the curve among other Southeast Alaska communities in terms of saving energy.
According to Mark Adams, the operations chief at Ketchikan Public Utilities electric division, only five minor side streets in Ketchikan currently use any type of LED system.
The move by Wrangell is more than just a pinpoint on Adams radar, however.
“We’ll see how it goes in Wrangell,” Adams said. “If it goes well, we’ll start our own pilot program next year to see if it will work for us.”
Petersburg’s electric chief, Joe Nelson, said his city has looked at replacing their lights – and has only been hampered by money issues.
“I do think that Wrangell is leading the way and was active in getting the grant money to pay for it,” Nelson said. “That grant money is key because this is not cheap to replace those lights. We have taken a preliminary look and the costs involved and without grant funds the return on the investment is minimal.”
The borough assembly approved the purchase of the new lights from Sea-Tac Lighting last week during their regular meeting. The first shipment of lights should arrive at the Port of Seattle by Dec. 14. Under the grant specifications, all the lights need to be installed by Aug. 31, 2012.
Wrangell Municipal Light and Power estimates 8 fixtures a day will be replaced when work begins and that all work on the project would be completed with 50 days.
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