The New York Power Authority (NYPA) is partnering with the town of Ramapo in Rockland County, New York to install energy-efficient self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology (SMART) LED streetlights throughout the town.
The project aims to replace the town’s more than 2,000 streetlights in a LED fixture makeover, which is expected to reduce the town’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50 metric tons, equivalent of consuming more than 5,500 gallons of gasoline.
The project will also add 1,549 new fixtures in underlit areas of the town to enhance public safety and improve pedestrian visibility. SMART nodes on the LED fixtures will allow the town to control the lights with localized dimming options, while a new asset management system will monitor and control the entire streetlight system, providing outage reporting.
This initiative supports the state’s objective to replace a minimum of 500,000 streetlights with LED technology by 2025 under the Smart Street Lighting NY program, which has already led to the replacement of hundreds of thousands of streetlights with LED fixtures.
The program aligns with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act’s clean energy goals, where participating municipalities aim to reduce their annual electricity demand by 3 percent, equivalent to the energy usage of 1.8 million New York households, by 2025.
NYPA is working with cities, towns, villages, and counties throughout New York to manage and implement their transition to LED streetlight technology. The program provides upfront financing for the project, with payments to NYPA made from the cost-savings created by the reduced energy use of the LED streetlights. According to power utility, these LED streetlights are 50 to 65 percent more efficient than alternative street lighting options.
Furthermore, NYPA’s government customers are provided a wide array of lighting options, including specifications on the lights to incorporate SMART technology, which can be used for various other functions, such as cameras and other safety features, weather sensors, Wi-Fi, and energy meters.
Other municipalities that have already converted to LED streetlights in collaboration with NYPA include Albany, Utica, Rochester, Syracuse, and White Plains, among others. To further advance the state’s effort to replace existing New York street lighting, in 2020, NYPA launched a new maintenance service to provide routine and on-call maintenance services for LED street lighting fixtures installed by NYPA throughout the state.
