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February 04, 2008
Austin Joins Growing Network of LED Cities
By Anshu Shrivastava TMCnet Contributing Editor
Cree (News - Alert), Inc., a provider of LED solid-state lighting components, has announced that the City of Austin has joined the LED City program.
The LED City program is an international initiative to deploy and promote energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) lighting. The LED City is an expanding community of government and industry parties working to evaluate deploy and promote LED lighting technology across the full range of municipal infrastructure to save energy and protect the environment.
According to Cree, Austin joins Toronto, Raleigh, NC, and Ann Arbor, MI, in evaluating and deploying LED lighting technology across their municipal infrastructures. Officials inform that last year in December, the City of Austin and Austin Energy (News - Alert) retrofitted a floor of the One Texas Center Parking Garage with 47-watt LED fixtures from Beta LED.
In addition, LED fixtures have also been installed in a hallway at Austin Energy headquarters, in streetlights on Barton Springs, in the Palmer Events Center marquee sign and in the water fountain at the new Palmer Events Center Park.
Cree states that additional test installations are planned throughout the City, including a portion of the lights surrounding the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail.
“One of the workhorses in the City’s lighting inventory is the 250-watt High Pressure Sodium Cobra-head roadway fixture. We plan to evaluate LED solutions that have the potential to reduce energy consumption by 47 to 90 percent over traditional lighting solutions,” Will Wynn, Mayor of Austin, said in a press statement.
He also pointed out that just by retrofitting 5,000 streetlights -- which is a mere portion of all of the streetlights within the City -- the City could realize savings of up to $500,000 a year.
Noting that the total wattage of the LED garage light installation is about 30 percent below the allowable wattage as required by the Energy Code Allowance, Wynn, said, “This represents a savings of $6,795 a year in utility costs compared to the Code Allowance.
He also said that because LEDs typically last 5-7 times longer than the prior fixture bulbs, the City anticipates it could achieve an additional savings of $27,000 in replacement lamp costs over the life of the LEDs.
Wynn expects that the combined annualized savings to the City could be $10,178 per year with a simple payback of 6.5 years. He also explained, this lighting strategy is part of “our efforts to achieve Energy Star and LEED Accreditation for City of Austin buildings.”
Roger Duncan, interim general manager at Austin Energy, indicated that Austin Energy has a $17-million-per-year rebate program that encourages commercial and home energy customers to purchase and use products that provide significant energy savings.
He added, “Our LED lighting rebate of $300 per-kilowatt-of-capacity-reduced aims to cover about 30 percent of the upfront cost of LEDs to help businesses explore the benefits of this new technology.”|
In 2003, the City of Austin retrofitted over 5,200 traffic signals and 3700 pedestrian signals with LEDs. The wattage of the traffic signals was reduced from 135 watts to 11-15 watts each, which is a 90-percent reduction.
The retrofit is said to have realized a savings of 7.25 million kilowatt-hours per year, removed 830 kilowatts of demand load from the City grid. The City estimates that it has saved taxpayers $1.4 million per year and also additional maintenance and labor savings.
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Anshu Shrivastava is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.
For all the latest enterprise IP
communications, unified communications, and contact center news, please click here.
The LED City program is an international initiative to deploy and promote energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) lighting. The LED City is an expanding community of government and industry parties working to evaluate deploy and promote LED lighting technology across the full range of municipal infrastructure to save energy and protect the environment.
According to Cree, Austin joins Toronto, Raleigh, NC, and Ann Arbor, MI, in evaluating and deploying LED lighting technology across their municipal infrastructures. Officials inform that last year in December, the City of Austin and Austin Energy (News - Alert) retrofitted a floor of the One Texas Center Parking Garage with 47-watt LED fixtures from Beta LED.
In addition, LED fixtures have also been installed in a hallway at Austin Energy headquarters, in streetlights on Barton Springs, in the Palmer Events Center marquee sign and in the water fountain at the new Palmer Events Center Park.
Cree states that additional test installations are planned throughout the City, including a portion of the lights surrounding the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail.
“One of the workhorses in the City’s lighting inventory is the 250-watt High Pressure Sodium Cobra-head roadway fixture. We plan to evaluate LED solutions that have the potential to reduce energy consumption by 47 to 90 percent over traditional lighting solutions,” Will Wynn, Mayor of Austin, said in a press statement.
He also pointed out that just by retrofitting 5,000 streetlights -- which is a mere portion of all of the streetlights within the City -- the City could realize savings of up to $500,000 a year.
Noting that the total wattage of the LED garage light installation is about 30 percent below the allowable wattage as required by the Energy Code Allowance, Wynn, said, “This represents a savings of $6,795 a year in utility costs compared to the Code Allowance.
He also said that because LEDs typically last 5-7 times longer than the prior fixture bulbs, the City anticipates it could achieve an additional savings of $27,000 in replacement lamp costs over the life of the LEDs.
Wynn expects that the combined annualized savings to the City could be $10,178 per year with a simple payback of 6.5 years. He also explained, this lighting strategy is part of “our efforts to achieve Energy Star and LEED Accreditation for City of Austin buildings.”
Roger Duncan, interim general manager at Austin Energy, indicated that Austin Energy has a $17-million-per-year rebate program that encourages commercial and home energy customers to purchase and use products that provide significant energy savings.
He added, “Our LED lighting rebate of $300 per-kilowatt-of-capacity-reduced aims to cover about 30 percent of the upfront cost of LEDs to help businesses explore the benefits of this new technology.”|
In 2003, the City of Austin retrofitted over 5,200 traffic signals and 3700 pedestrian signals with LEDs. The wattage of the traffic signals was reduced from 135 watts to 11-15 watts each, which is a 90-percent reduction.
The retrofit is said to have realized a savings of 7.25 million kilowatt-hours per year, removed 830 kilowatts of demand load from the City grid. The City estimates that it has saved taxpayers $1.4 million per year and also additional maintenance and labor savings.
|
Anshu Shrivastava is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.
For all the latest enterprise IP
communications, unified communications, and contact center news, please click here.
