British Columbia is making it easier for the province’s cities and towns to convert their street lighting to more efficient and longer-lasting LED systems.
The province is creating what is essentially a buying consortium coordinated by Shared Services BC. It has pre-qualified LED street lighting suppliers and struck a volume supply deal with them, giving municipalities and other eligible public-sector organizations the ability to get dependable technology at a cost that is much lower compared to what organizations would pay if they made the purchase alone.
The multiyear procurement program will be able to support the deployment of 330,000 LED-based streetlights across the province, and offers a model for other provinces to follow.
LightSavers Canada, an LED program that’s part of the Canadian Urban Institute, will be providing B.C. municipalities access to case studies, workshops and training materials to support their transition.
Phil Jessup, director of LightSavers Canada, said his next mission is to get the Ontario government interested in backing its own province-wide LED street light program.
There’s little doubt that converting to LED street lights makes sense for municipalities. As Corporate Knights publisher Toby Heaps wrote in May, the lights are much more efficient than sodium lamps used today and last several times longer, reducing both energy bills and maintenance costs.
The biggest barrier to adoption, however, has been figuring out how to finance projects – that is, fund the upfront costs. Energy services companies have been emerging to reduce that barrier, making it possible for municipalities to pay off the investment through monthly operational and energy bill savings.
The B.C. program is expected to help reduce costs more through coordinated procurement.
LightSavers Canada’s goal is to see one million or 37 per cent of all street lights in Canada switched over to LED by 2016. Canada currently lags at just 5 per cent penetration, well below the nearly 15 per cent figure for the United States.
