GE's new Evolve™ LED Scalable Cobrahead lighting fixtures have been installed by Xcel Energy in the city of West St. Paul, Minn., as part of a utility-initiated implementation of LED street lights. Xcel Energy will monitor performance of the new lights for two years and use the data to develop an LED program for every state in its service area: Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. The utility maintains approximately 500,000 Xcel Energy and customer-owned street lights in all eight states.
Xcel Energy has changed 530 high-pressure sodium (100-, 150- and 250-watt) fixtures in West St. Paul to GE's LED street lights. Data collected during the testing will help the utility decide what sort of LED lighting products provide the most benefit to customers, how to price LED rate options, how much maintenance is required and how frequently it should be performed. It also will document customers' perception of the LED fixtures.
Xcel Energy has installed GE's Evolve™ Cobrahead fixtures in West St. Paul, Minn., in a pilot project to measure the performance of LED street lighting.
In the meantime, West St. Paul will continue to pay its current street light service rate. Xcel Energy funded the $200,000 cost to install the fixtures, completed in January 2013.
"These new LED systems have improved the quality of light that our residents rely on to navigate our streets at night," said West St. Paul Mayor John Zanmiller. "With the help of Xcel Energy and GE Lighting, our community is seeing the promise of a new technology that can yield significant savings. The preliminary data is promising, and other cities—large or small—should keep a keen eye on the results."
GE Lighting anticipates the switch to provide annual energy savings of about 45 percent.
The Evolve LED Scalable Cobrahead Street Lighting fixture, a product of GE ecomagination℠, was recently awarded "Best in Class" for roadway lighting in the 2012 Next Generation Luminaires™ (NGL) Competition and won the 2013 LightFair International Innovation Award category for Parking, Roadway and Area Luminaires. Significantly reducing energy use compared to traditional high-intensity (HID) street lighting systems, the fixture is offered in four sizes to meet a variety of municipal codes.
Many municipal customers are seeking ways to reduce costs, and Xcel Energy is sharing recommendations that include the ways LED fixtures affect operations and maintenance dollars. Currently, Xcel Energy has a five-year preventative maintenance cycle in place to proactively replace lamps in the street lights on its system.
