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#Post#: 568--------------------------------------------------
LED Lighting To Cut Energy Use While Retaining Adequate Lighting
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: December 16, 2013, 8:52 pm
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Street Fight: LED Street Lighting, the Newest Challenge to Old
Utility Business Models
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Posted December 5, 2013
By Dan Cross-Call and Dan Howe
A lot is being said about various threats to the electric
utility business model. At their root, many of those threats are
really a fundamental misalignment between utilities’ revenue
model and their customers’ own financial needs and service
preferences. More often than not, solar PV figures centrally in
these conversations. But a new and unexpected threat is
emerging: street lights.
For any level of government responsible for managing roadways,
street lighting is a critical service. Among other services,
effective and targeted lighting on roadways can dramatically
improve auto and pedestrian safety. Now emerging technologies
such as energy-efficient LED lighting are creating a dramatic
opportunity for consumer-side cost savings, as well as the
potential for a much broader suite of municipal services via
LED-integrated smart sensors, and with it the possibility for
upending a staid and overlooked component of the traditional
utility service offering. Clearly, these are not your
grandfather’s street lights.
In some cities, the municipality owns the streetlights and pays
the utility for the energy those lights use. But in most cities
around the country, the local electric distribution company
provides overhead street lighting as a basic service at a flat
monthly rate per light, which includes the light itself,
maintenance, and electricity. Therein lies the rub—regulated
utilities often have little incentive to invest in more
efficient streetlights, which offer a reliable, consistent, and
often lucrative revenue stream that comes at a time of day (or
night) when demand is low.
Despite a seeming incentive for utilities to invest in
efficiency and thus increase the profit margin between the flat
monthly rate they charge municipalities and the kilowatt-hours
that are bundled in that rate, installing a more efficient
street lighting system typically requires approval from the
state PUC, including tariff updates to reflect the new costs—a
process that would erode any cost savings the utility would hope
to capture.
Yet efficient streetlights could save cities and towns tons of
money if these municipalities were able to capture all the
inherent savings in energy and maintenance promised by the new
technology. In fact, street lighting often represents the
highest single energy-related expense in municipalities’ annual
budget, often running into the millions of tax dollars per year.
As public revenue streams constrict in the wake of the economic
recession, governments are exploring new public-private
partnership models such as performance contracting and
privatization to try to drive down lighting costs where the city
owns the system, and are leveraging regulatory agencies to allow
public buy-outs of utility-owned systems. A 2008 study by the
New York State Comptroller’s Office showed that the town of
Union, NY, was able to capture savings of approximately 40
percent, or $13.1 million, over the term of a 20-year bond used
to buy out the street lighting system from the local utility.
LEDS, COMING TO A STREET NEAR YOU
With semiconductor-based, solid-state LED lighting, the tension
between utilities and municipalities is likely to grow. LEDs
offer a host of benefits: a higher-quality available light
spectrum, a more narrowly directed light beam, the ability to
dim to match ambient light conditions and needs (thus helping to
reduce light pollution), and the fact that bugs are not
attracted to LED lights as they are to the ultraviolet light
cast from conventional street lights. In addition, there are
significant economic benefits, including drastic efficiency
improvements, much longer lifetimes with minimal maintenance
requirements, and resilience to petty vandalism.
Cities everywhere are beginning the conversion to LED street
lighting and reaping the economic rewards. For example, 40
percent of streetlights in Boston were converted by the end of
2012, saving the city $2.8 million annually in electricity costs
alone. Including reduced maintenance costs and other savings,
Boston expects a payback period of only two to three years
(sooner if rebates from its local utility are factored in). Los
Angeles likewise recently completed a transition of 141,000
streetlights, the largest single conversion project in the U.S.
The city expects to save $7 million in electricity savings and
$2.5 million in avoided maintenance costs per year. The $57
million dollar project was funded in part through a loan from
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which will be
paid back over seven years out of electricity and maintenance
cost savings. The State of Vermont provides another example,
where a partnership between electric utilities, the state’s
“efficiency utility” Efficiency Vermont, and municipalities has
resulted in revised utility rate structures and capital
investments that will provide 8,000 MWh of energy savings.
More pressure to convert is being applied on the federal level
in the wake of a U.S. Department of Energy study that found a
hypothetical full conversion of existing U.S. street lighting
LEDs could reduce nationwide energy demand by 8.1 Terawatt-hours
:o—or 50 to 70 percent below the study’s base case of high
pressure sodium bulbs and saving 5.7 million metric tons of
annual CO2 emissions. Utilities, long incentivized by business
models and rate structures that promote selling more
kilowatt-hours, are less than lukewarm about this prospect.
ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Yet LED lighting’s energy efficiency and other benefits are only
the tip of the iceberg. When married with other electronic
communication devices, sensors, and software intelligence—all
built upon the underlying semiconductor technology—LED
streetlights could become sophisticated nodes on a potentially
ubiquitous digital network (located on every street in every
municipality, and on highways between cities), capable of
sensing their own activities and the environment around them,
and controlling their own operation and other infrastructure
nearby.
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Imagine: all those thousands of poles evenly spaced on nearly
every street in your town, and along highways connecting you
with other towns, could be not only sources of light, but
interactive data nodes with the ability to provide real-time
information back to city hall and emergency responders, as well
as services to local residents. “Smart” street lights could
monitor traffic flow, remotely get brighter or dimmer in support
of first responders during an emergency, read utility meters
from nearby houses, serve as Wi-Fi hot spots, and more.
If all this sounds a little futuristic, consider that the U.S.
may already be late coming to the game. Last month, smart grid
technology firm Silver Spring Networks and French lighting
company Citelum announced a project in Copenhagen to convert
20,000 streetlights to LEDs, while also building a networked
platform for other services, which may include wireless service,
traffic signal controls, automated parking meters, and other
“smart city” services.
Meanwhile, Christchurch, New Zealand, which suffered a
devastating earthquake that leveled its downtown, is leveraging
12 percent of the $30 billion reconstruction fund—in partnership
with MIT and prominent technology and analytic software
companies—toward the establishment of a network of sensors and
smart technology (some atop streetlights, others buried
underground) that will monitor air quality, seismic activity,
transit flow, pedestrian flow, and building efficiency.
A BUSINESS MODEL BETTER SUITED TO SILICON VALLEY?
With all these savings and opportunities, why has conversion to
LED street lighting not taken place faster? The initial capital
cost of LED fixtures is one reason. LEDs can cost several times
that of traditional bulb technology, though prices are dropping
rapidly with continuing strides in the efficiency of the LEDs
themselves, better manufacturing techniques, and increased
competition. For example, the City of Asheville, NC, completed
the third phase of a three-year conversion of 8,000 streetlights
in 2013. Between phases 1 and 3, the cost of their most
expensive LED fixtures dropped from $765 to $472.
But even considering the plummeting cost, a full change-out of a
streetlight system demands a substantial capital investment for
either a utility or a community. Plus, with this technology
advancing so rapidly, communities are potentially faced with
making a 20-year investment in electronics that could be
comparatively obsolete within 5 years.
These are timetables far more familiar to IT companies and
Silicon Valley than to utilities. What was once a static service
with slowly changing technology is rapidly adjusting to the
hyperactive world of silicon-based electronics. Communities are
seeing the benefits, while technology and lighting companies are
experimenting with new business models, performance contracting,
and lease arrangements.
This all raises a fundamental question: Why should this service
continue to be included in the package of regulated services
provided by the electric utility?
One disruptive scenario might see street lighting disappear
entirely from the set of electricity services provided by the
utilities. Municipalities might take lighting on themselves. Or,
more likely, telecom or technology companies could move into
this once sleepy market, just as Silver Spring has done in
Copenhagen. For example, it is not difficult to imagine Google
making the leap from running fiber throughout cities to
connecting sensors and control technology with that network …
and providing street lighting as they go. Or Cisco, which owns
most of the patents for IP telephony, could decide to make a run
at the mobile phone market with a fine-grain Wi-Fi network built
into what were previously only lights on a pole. Under these
scenarios, utilities would lose a reliable, likely high-margin
business segment—potentially leading to a new slate of rate
cases as they are forced to balance lost revenues across other
customer segments.
Alternatively, the future might not be so disruptive for
utilities if street lighting became an unregulated profit
center, as has occurred in the State of Georgia. In that case,
the utilities need only pivot to develop their expertise and
partner with other companies to build and maintain networks of
these devices on their existing pole infrastructure. This can
open new unregulated revenue streams for both the utility and
for municipalities from third-party users, expand municipal
services available to citizens, improve lighting, and, with it,
safety and aesthetics. All of this can exist in a competitive
environment that does not restrict profitability, but still
assures the lowest cost to the consumer and provides an
incentive for continuous innovation.
Whatever the ownership model, a first step is to better align
incentives around energy efficiency and electricity providers’
cost recovery mechanisms. That has been the lesson from Vermont,
and strong efficiency mandates in Massachusetts have likewise
supported the major LED rollout in Boston. In places where
electricity is provided by a municipal utility such as Los
Angeles, these incentives are already well aligned and change is
taking place. It remains to be seen, however, if these cost- and
efficiency-driven programs are also positioned to make the leap
to the more expansive service potential that LED technology
enables.
It may be too early to know what this will represent for the
utilities, but it’s certain that there is plenty of pressure
from all levels of government and from technology companies to
drive change sooner than later. With every passing year, the
technology improves, costs go down, and potential savings grow.
The question then becomes, who is best positioned to seize this
opportunity?
Co-author Dan Howe is the assistant city manager for the City of
Raleigh, NC, and a member of Rocky Mountain Institute’s eLab.
HTML http://theenergycollective.com/dcrosscall-rmi/312601/street-fight-led-street-lighting-newest-challenge-old-utility-business-models
#Post#: 926--------------------------------------------------
Re: LED Lighting To Cut Energy Use While Retaining Adequate
Lighting
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: April 16, 2014, 9:05 pm
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U.S. Parking Facilities Cut Energy Use by 90 Percent, Switch 270
Million Square Feet to Energy Efficient Lighting :o ;D
April 16, 2014 - 10:55am
WASHINGTON – As part of the Energy Department’s commitment to
helping U.S. businesses save money by saving energy, the
Department’s Better Buildings Alliance is supporting the
Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking (LEEP) Campaign. To date,
more than 100 U.S. businesses and organizations are
participating in the campaign and planning or installing energy
efficient lighting in their parking lots and garages. In the
past year, these organizations have committed to install
efficient lighting across more than 270 million square feet of
parking space – cutting energy use by up to 90 percent.
“By making parking lots and garages more energy efficient, our
partners in the Lighting Energy Efficiency in Parking Campaign
are saving energy, improving their bottom lines and serving as
models for other organizations to increase the use of energy
efficiency in their communities,” said Assistant Secretary for
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Danielson.
Building owners spend more than $6 billion to light their
parking lots and garages, and much of this could be saved if
parking lots and garages were upgraded to the most efficient
lighting solutions. LEEP Campaign participants have upgraded
their facilities to high efficiency metal halide, fluorescent,
and LED solutions that last three times longer than their
previous technology and by using controls are able to reduce
energy use when parking facilities are not in use. Through the
LEEP Campaign, the Energy Department’s Better Buildings
Alliance, the Building Owners and Managers Association, the
Green Parking Council and the International Facility Management
Association are working together to help owners of parking lots
and garages upgrade to energy efficient lighting.
Today, the Energy Department joined LEEP Campaign co-organizers
to recognize 12 organizations for leading the way in efficient
lighting. Combined, these 12 winners are saving nearly 45
million kilowatt-hours and $4 million per year by upgrading to
high efficiency lighting in 500,000 parking spaces nationwide.
Since 2009, the Energy Department’s Better Buildings Alliance
has provided technical assistance to help building and parking
facility owners and managers install energy efficient lighting.
Find more information on the Energy Department’s broader efforts
to save money by saving energy at U.S. parking facilities and a
full list of the organizations recognized today.
HTML http://energy.gov/articles/us-parking-facilities-cut-energy-use-90-percent-switch-270-million-square-feet-energy
#Post#: 1099--------------------------------------------------
Petra Smart City lighting systems
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: May 12, 2014, 12:02 am
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgGlez86jls&feature=player_embedded
#Post#: 1172--------------------------------------------------
Re: LED Lighting To Cut Energy Use While Retaining Adequate
Lighting
DIR By: AGelbert
Date: May 20, 2014, 7:55 pm
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Philips LED Down To $1.97 Some Places, CREE LED Down To $6.97 At
Home Depot
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/>
Before too long, I’m going to publish reviews of three CREE LED
bulbs. But before getting to that I wanted to pass along a quick
note regarding the rather big news that you can now get CREE
LEDs in Home Depot for a mere $6.97. That’s for a bulb that is
equivalent to a 60W incandescent soft white bulb. It’s also a
dimmable bulb.
One of our readers actually passed this Home Depot LED link
along just before Earth Day and noted that the price was down to
$4.97. I guess that was an Earth Day special, but $6.97 is still
super low. With a bulb that uses 85% less energy, your “payback
time” is going to be quick. And it comes with a 10-year
warranty.
And this isn’t even as low as it goes. Another story we’ve been
meaning to cover for a while is that the Philips SlimStyle LED
bulb (which is in the middle of our studio apartment), has
achieved ENERGY STAR certification, which means that it can
qualify for Energy Efficiency Program rebates nationwide.
Efficiency Maine customers, for example, can get it for as
little as $1.97!
The Philips SlimStyle again cuts energy use by about 85%. It
will save consumers $136 in electricity costs alone over its
lifetime, a Philips rep told me in an email. Of course, that all
depends on what type of bulb you’re replacing, though. If you’re
replacing a CREE 60W-equivalent LED, I guess your savings are
more like $5.
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philips SlimStyle LED
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[move]If used 3 hours a day, 7 days a week, Lasts over 22 YEARS!
:o
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[/move]
Consumers in states such as CT, HI, IN, MA, ME, MI, NJ, NV, RI,
UT, and WA, as well as Washington, DC, could see pricing as low
as $3.97 on shelf at Home Depot. You can check out a full
listing of the 600 utilities Philips has worked with to offer
rebates on its ENERGY STAR–certified bulbs if you want more
info.
The age of incandescents is obviously over, but I think the age
of CFLs is on its way out as well. Your thoughts?
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HTML http://cleantechnica.com/2014/05/20/led-prices-6-97-home-depot/
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