{"id":20162,"date":"2018-03-21T15:44:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T19:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20162"},"modified":"2018-03-21T15:44:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T19:44:54","slug":"led-lights-saving-money-energy-but-not-as-quickly-as-hoped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/led-lights-saving-money-energy-but-not-as-quickly-as-hoped\/","title":{"rendered":"LED lights saving money, energy \u2013 but not as quickly as hoped"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since 2015, over 4,500 of Aurora\u2019s street lights have been switched from traditional lamps to energy-efficient LED models, a move spurred in a bid to save both energy and money. But, while money and energy is being saved, it will take longer than expected for the expensive project to pay for itself.
\nThe $3.27 million conversion process was expected to pay for itself after nine years, but a series of hurdles have been faced, pushing this payback off at least to 10.
\nA recent report to Council states the conversion project is \u201csubstantially complete\u201d but streetlight billing has proved to be a \u201ccomplex\u201d process.
\n\u201cThe Streetlight LED Conversion project is now complete, save for 27 troublesome lamps,\u201d said Town Treasurer Dan Elliott in his report to Council. \u201cThe electricity demand reductions were achieved. However, there have been delays in realizing the savings on our billings. Further, the project took longer to complete than expected, resulting in lost savings previously expected. Further, the expected reductions in streetlight maintenance costs have not been fully realized.
\n\u201cStaff are working to realize retroactive electricity billings and are working to discuss delay adjustments with the contractor, prior to final payments to them for the work completed.\u201d
\nCompounding the billing issue, he contended, was a communications breakdown between the LED streetlight vendor RealTime Energy and the power company Alectra (formerly PowerStream) on the pace of the conversions, resulting in energy overcharges of more than $52,000.
\nGetting actual numbers on how much money the LED conversion was actually saving Aurora has been a key issue of focus for Councillor Harold Kim, who said the report was \u201csurprising\u201d in that \u201ccommonsensical\u201d things were not caught and the Town has to look at recouping expenses.
\n\u201cWhose responsibility was it to review the audit consultant\u2019s report and should the auditor consultant not have asked us more questions about the nature of our maintenance and our cost structure?\u201d he asked. \u201cDid we even know our maintenance costs for our street lighting at that time or even ask it? The savings of $362,000 per year, which was, with a payback period of nine years, it looks like it is going to be about 10.3 or 10.5 years. Eventually we will get that paid back, but it will be stretched out over a longer period of time.
\n\u201cStaff were advised this savings would be guaranteed by RealTime and the final contract excluded this language. It is almost as if it is akin to buying a car and saying you have the five year bumper to bumper warranty, but you forgot to read the fine line on the contract.\u201d
\nIn response, Mr. Elliott said he and his department have been working to clear up the discrepancies.
\nHe met with Alectra in February, he said, and both parties are \u201cin the process of exchanging information.\u201d The discussions, he added, have been positive.
\n\u201cI walked in with the attitude this was exploratory, where are we at, how can we get through this issue? The person I was dealing with opened the meeting by stating they were already at a $32,000 and I recognize that is not enough yet and I am not finished,\u201d said Mr. Elliott. \u201c\u2019I\u2019m at $52,000 and she\u2019s at $32,000, and she\u2019s not finished yet. It\u2019s a work in progress, but I was very encouraged by the attitude and reception I had.
\nFinancial issues aside, Council members also had questions of a more practical nature, particularly Councillor Wendy Gaertner who said, since the new lights were installed, she has fielded a complaint from a resident over an improperly installed fixture.
\n\u201cI got a complaint who said their light was shining into his daughter\u2019s bedroom window and they didn\u2019t find it acceptable,\u201d she said, noting she spoke to the department\u2019s former director, who said there were \u201cmany light fixtures that were improper and they had to be replaced to ensure the light was going in the right direction.\u201d
\n\u201cMy understanding from the project manager is those lamp replacements are not being paid for twice,\u201d said Mr. Elliott, responding to questions over who was shouldering the blame \u2013 and cost \u2013 for ill-installed lights.
\n\u201cI can conclude today we have received the demand reductions we expected from the project. We\u2019ve also, on an annual basis, we are saving what we expected from an electricity perspective. There is the shortfall as Councillor Kim pointed out on the maintenance side, but I believe we achieved what we set out to do with respect to saving electricity, saving money on electricity and by definition these are brand new units. We will have less maintenance, but not to the degree we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2015, over 4,500 of Aurora\u2019s street lights have been switched from traditional lamps to energy-efficient LED models, a move spurred in a bid to save both energy and money. But, while money and energy is being saved, it will take longer than expected for the expensive project to pay for itself<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5fc","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 14:06:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}