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City recognized for street light conversion

COLUMBIANA — The city was recently recognized by American Municipal Power (AMP) for its LED street light conversion project.

The project took just over a year and consisted of the replacement of 600 sodium vapor 250-watt street light fixtures with 73-watt LED light fixtures throughout the city.

The work cost the city $213,000 but is expected to generate an annual savings of $54,607, for a simple payback over four years.

The new lighting is expected to generate a savings of $819,116 over the lifetime of the new lights.

Electric Superintendent Doug Sturgeon said in a report to AMP that the project was implemented due to the potential cost savings in energy and to provide better, safer, more efficient and dependable lighting of city streets.

He also said that 80 percent of city customers saw a direct benefit as a result of the project, which was initiated in January of last year and completed in February of this year.

“By completing this project we were able to provide our customers with significant energy savings, reduce our overall energy footprint and provide the city’s residents with better and more dependable street lights,” Sturgeon said.

In addition, city council decided this week to continue participation in Efficiency Smart, an energy efficiency program available to AMP members.

The participation will continue for another three years at no cost increase and is expected to save city customers more than $1.9 million over about 12 years.

The city’s annual cost for the three-year contract is $106,129, the same at the last three-year contract and the contract has a benefit-cost ratio of $4.51 to $1.

Benefits through the program in addition to kilowatt hour savings are lighting buy-downs and HEAP initiatives and rebates and incentives for efficient appliances and equipment.

Those who participate can also take advantage of home energy audits and commercial and industrial energy audits, as well as get assistance and financing for LED street lighting.

The city’s participation through the last contract surpassed the more than 1,000 kilowatt hour savings goal by about 600 kilowatt hours.

“This is a fairly significant achievement and you should be proud of that as a community,” Project Manager Randy Corbin said.

Local businesses can also take advantage of the program, and Corbin pointed out that doing so will cut their operating costs.

“In many communities this is becoming a primary business retention tool … not only is their power supply cost going down but they are lowering their usage,” he said

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