Unitil, (Unitil.com), a provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in New England, recently completed work with the City of Concord to convert more than 2,000 streetlights from traditional bulbs to more efficient LED lighting in an effort to reduce energy usage and lower operational costs.
The city took advantage of cost-saving incentives available for the multi-year project, including a unique approach involving street-by-street audits to custom design lighting specifically for each neighborhood. This design strategy resulted in low-level lighting for residential neighborhoods and higher levels of lighting for commercial and high traffic areas.
Unitil provided energy efficiency incentives to the city totaling $285,448 that cut the cost by more than half as well as a zero-interest loan of $262,459.73 to on-bill finance the remaining cost over a five-year period.
The incentives were offered through NHSaves – a collaboration of New Hampshire’s electric and natural gas utilities working together to provide customers with information, incentives, and support designed to save energy, reduce costs, and protect the environment statewide.
“We’re pleased that we were able to work with the city on this exciting project, which is significant and will come with many benefits,” said Alec O’Meara, External Affairs Manager at Unitil. “Not only will the new lighting lower operational costs for the city, but the upgrade will lead to reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions, less maintenance, and improved overall lighting that is more neighborhood appropriate.”
The project involved replacing a total of 2,050 streetlights – the largest conversion in Unitil’s New Hampshire service territory. The move to LED streetlights, which are rated for a 20-year life span, is expected to reduce the city’s energy usage by 672,364 kilowatt hours annually, resulting in an estimated carbon emission reduction of 551.6 tons per year. As a result of the new lighting, the city is projected to save more than $700,000 on energy costs over a 10-year period, with the potential for additional savings in the future as advanced control systems are introduced and installed.
“Converting these lights has many benefits for the City of Concord and we are happy to have this project come to fruition,” said Concord City Manager Tom Aspell. “This project supports our renewable energy and emissions reduction goals while also providing a return on investment for many years to come.”
The city hired RealTerm Energy of Montreal, Quebec, a North American leader in LED conversion and smart controls, as the lead vendor for the project. Dagle Electrical Construction Corp. of Wilmington, Mass., served as the installing contractor. While other vendors offered only a few main choices of street level lighting, by conducting a comprehensive lighting analysis, RealTerm Energy and its team were able to design lighting for different neighborhoods and commercial areas that resulted in as many as seven different light levels for streetlights and four different light levels for a variety of flood lights.
The completion of the project follows discussions that began in late 2017 with the first agreements being drafted in 2020. Given the size and financial implications, the project also needed approval from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission. Following negotiations and awarding of the contract, work was slated to begin in the fall of 2021 with completion by the end of 2021, but due to supply chain issues involving some of the materials, the project was completed during the second half of calendar year 2022.
Photo caption: Gary Miller, senior business development executive at Unitil, joined Concord City Manager Tom Aspell and members of the City Council Monday night to present a check to the city related to energy efficiency incentives following the recent completion of a significant LED streetlight conversion project.
