NYPA to Install Nearly 1,800 LED Streetlights throughout Six Municipalities in Wayne and Ontario County

For Immediate Release: 12/03/20

Contact: Paul DeMichele | paul.demichele@nypa.gov | (914) 390-8186

Energy-Efficient Lighting Upgrades to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Improve Safety and Save Money

 

Governor Cuomo’s Smart Street Lighting NY Program Calls for 500,000 Street Lights to Be Converted to LED Technology by 2025

 

 

WHITE PLAINS—The New York Power Authority is installing LED street lighting at municipalities in Wayne and Ontario County as part of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Smart Street Lighting NY program, which calls for at least 500,000 streetlights throughout the state to be replaced with LED technology by 2025.

 

The lighting upgrades will be undertaken throughout the Town of Ontario, Town of Butler, Town of Williamson, Village of Clyde and Village of Sodus Point in Wayne County and the Town of Farmington in Ontario County. In total, the more than $3 million upgrade, financed and implemented by NYPA, includes the replacement of nearly 1,800 streetlights throughout the municipalities with energy-saving LED fixtures, improving lighting quality and neighborhood safety while reducing energy and maintenance costs. The installations are expected to begin in January and complete in the spring.

 

NYPA is also providing up to $360,000 in Smart Cities grants for the projects, which include asset management nodes and smart street lighting controls that allow for the automatic reporting of outages, minimizing maintenance costs. In addition, the light fixtures now have the capability to be dimmed and remotely controlled. NYPA and the municipalities are in the process of designing additional smart street lighting features to be implemented following completion of the LED fixture upgrades.

 

“Under the Governor’s Smart Street Lighting NY program, NYPA is in the process of replacing tens of thousands of streetlights across the state and fully expects to exceed the Governor’s goal of replacing 500,000 lights by 2025,” said Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO. “This impactful program is helping municipalities throughout the state to reduce energy and maintenance costs and improve safety, while also protecting the environment.”

 

“NYPA’s assistance to our municipalities has been a vital part of making this project happen,” said Brian Pincelli, Wayne County director of economic development & planning. “Street lighting constitutes a significant portion of municipal energy consumption and expenditures. By buying back streetlights from their utility provider, converting to energy efficient fixtures, and procuring products and services in bulk, municipalities can achieve energy and financial savings.”

 

“The Town of Farmington is excited to have our more than 400 streetlights converted to LED fixtures,” said Town of Farmington Supervisor Peter Ingalsbe. “Working with the staff at NYPA has been a smooth and efficient process. This project will save our taxpayers almost $70,000 per year and reduce harmful greenhouse gases by approximately 20.7 Metric tons.”

 

NYPA is working with cities, towns, villages and counties throughout New York to fully manage and implement a customer’s transition to LED streetlight technology. NYPA provides upfront financing for the project, with payments to NYPA made in the years following from the cost-savings created by the reduced energy use of the LED streetlights, which are 50 to 65 percent more efficient than alternative street lighting options.

 

Through this statewide street lighting program, NYPA’s government customers are provided a wide-array of lighting options to help meet their individual needs, including specifications on the lights to incorporate SMART technology, which can be used for dozens of other functions, such as cameras and other safety features, weather sensors, Wi-Fi and energy meters.

 

The program directly supports the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the most aggressive climate change law in the nation, through the increased use of energy efficiency to annually reduce electricity demand by three percent—equivalent to 1.8 million New York households—by 2025. To learn more about the Smart Street Lighting NY program, visit the program webpage on NYPA’s website.

 

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New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

Governor Cuomo's nation-leading climate plan is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State builds back better as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the CLCPA, New York is on a path to reach its mandated goals of economy wide carbon neutrality and achieving a zero-carbon emissions electricity sector by 2040, faster than any other state. It builds on New York's unprecedented ramp-up of clean energy including a $3.9 billion investment in 67 large-scale renewable projects across the state, the creation of more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector, a commitment to develop over 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035, and 1,800 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011. New York's Climate Action Council is working on a scoping plan to build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at

least 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments benefit disadvantaged communities, and advancing progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 TBtus.

 

About NYPA

NYPA is the largest state public power organization in the nation, operating 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 80 percent of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. For more information visit www.nypa.gov and follow us on Twitter @NYPAenergy, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and LinkedIn.