City of Kelowna replaces over 10,000 street lights with LEDs

Kelowna Now - Megan Trudeau -March 28, 2019

 The completion of a new energy saving project is set to help Kelowna save an enormous amount of money over the next several years,

 "The last time the City was able to talk about a 400% return on investment and an estimated $16 million in savings over the next 15 years was… never. However, with the recent completion of the LED street light conversion project, these numbers are now reality," said the City of Kelowna.

 The project was to replace all of the City’s existing high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting with light-emitting diode (LED) lighting.

 “We did a pilot in 2016, which demonstrated significant energy savings and the potential to cut energy consumption by more than 50% while maintaining appropriate light levels and illuminations for optimal roadway lighting. In 2017, Council approved the project budget and between spring and fall 2018, more than 10,000 of the City’s street lights were replaced with LEDs," said Brydan Tollefson, Energy Program Manager, City of Kelowna.

 The City and FortisBC worked closely together on the project, which cost $3.75 million to implement, but with a payback amounting to a 400% return on investment and a rebate of more than $670,000.

 This is the largest rebate that FortisBC has paid out to date for an electricity-saving project. It’s expected to reduce to the City’s annual electricity us by 4.5 million kilowatt hours, which is equivalent to the annual use of 400 homes.

 “We commend the City of Kelowna for the success of this project, especially their efforts to make improvements along the way and achieve even greater savings,” said James Allen, conservation and energy management program manager, FortisBC. “They really understand the value energy savings projects like this bring to their residents and we’re pleased to support them.”