The city of Blue Springs, Missouri was recently chosen to participate in the Kansas City Power and Light (KCP&L) pilot program to evaluate LED streetlights in the utility’s service area. The additional participant communities are Gladstone, Liberty, Prairie Village and St. Joseph, all located in Missouri. The pilot installation totals 44 LED streetlights manufactured by American Lighting, Cooper, EcoFit, G.E., Howard Lighting, and Sylvania. In the city of Blue Springs, KCP&L installed four LED streetlight fixtures manufactured by American Lighting.
“The new LED fixtures are 65 watt equivalent, and have replaced four existing high pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures. The utility plans to maintain the pilot for about one year and evaluate the LED fixtures for quality and light output, among other metrics,” said Chris Sandie, assistant director of public works for the city of Blue Springs. The LED fixtures which are currently being tested are shoebox style fixtures and have been placed at several intersections in the city. “The city leases its streetlights from KCP&L, but we are also looking at replacing our city-owned decorative streetlights with LED fixtures. The city is looking for a cost effective solution,” said Sandie.
There are currently 2,641 HPS streetlights in Blue Springs, which have been converted over time from mercury vapor fixtures. Although the HPS fixtures are currently less expensive to install, they require more frequent re-lamping than LED fixtures, which are projected to have much longer lifetimes than the HPS fixtures. “Our community is very supportive of energy efficient lighting, and the fact that our utility is interested in moving forward with energy efficient lighting should have very positive results,” said Sandie.
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