A Bright Idea: LED Streetlight Upgrade Begins Shortly for the City of Brampton
The City of Brampton, in conjunction with the Region of Peel, will soon have a smarter, environmentally-friendly lighting system that will significantly reduce energy and maintenance costs. Starting this month, the City will undergo an upgrade of its streetlight system to energy-efficient, light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights.
A multi-year contract was awarded to LAS and RealTerm Energy by the City of Brampton to change almost 25,000 cobra heads. The City has previously installed more than 4,000 LED street lights through other projects. RealTerm Energy has already completed an audit of the City’s 45,000 decorative and cobra head lights. The first phase of the project is underway along the Region of Peel roads. Following the regional roads, street lighting for major thorough-ways throughout Brampton will commence.
The new LED fixtures are expected to cut Brampton’s streetlight energy consumption by approximately 67% as LEDs require significantly less electricity than the high-pressure sodium lights that are presently in place. This upgrade will also decrease annual streetlight maintenance costs by up to 80% because LEDs are a solid-state technology (with no moving parts) and last up to four times longer than the City’s existing streetlights. The new LED lights also include a 10-year warranty.
By moving forward with the conversion of the City’s 25,000 cobra heads to LED, Brampton plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 690 metric tons per year and approximately 15,862 metric tons over the lifetime of the luminaires. This is the equivalent of the greenhouse gas emissions avoided by recycling 4,159 tons of waste instead of landfilling them, thus significantly reducing the City’s carbon footprint.
“The City of Brampton is focusing on continuous improvement,” shares Michael Parks, Director, Road Maintenance, Operations and Fleet “and this initiative demonstrates our dedication to making our city safer, more secure and reducing our carbon footprint so that we can improve our environment.”
Shane Beirnes, Traffic Street Light Supervisor, couldn’t agree more, “Brampton will significantly benefit from this upgrade. In addition to saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in reduced energy costs, our environmentally-conscious city can now become even greener. We all win.”
Across the City, light pollution will be reduced as a result of the LED fixtures. Their design enables the light rays to diffuse and distribute light in a more precise manner than Brampton’s current cobra heads. As such, the new fixtures will have reduced glare and illuminate only targeted areas.
“We look forward to working with the City of Brampton on this LED upgrade. It will not only provide cost-savings opportunities to the City but numerous benefits to its communities, as well. We know this project is an important one for Brampton in its drive to ensure a livable, sustainable and vibrant municipality for its citizens,” offers Kerry Wilson, RealTerm Energy’s Managing Director, Business Solutions.
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Local Authority Services (LAS) is a preferred provider of competitively priced and sustainable co-operative business services for Ontario municipalities and the broader public sector. As the not-for-profit service arm of Association of Municipalities Ontario, LAS helps its customers “save money, make money, and build capacity.”
RealTerm Energy Corp. is redefining the municipal street lighting market with intelligent LED lighting systems and services that deliver unmatched energy and maintenance savings. We create and foster long-term partnerships with forward-thinking private, public and government market leaders to deliver innovative and cost-effective lighting solutions.