Fort sheds light on energy savings
FORT FAIRFIELD’S ornamental street lights that line Main Street and other municipal roads are costing the town money. Tony Levesque, community development director, said it costs about $30,000 a year to operate the street lights. The town has received a $58,290 Maine Public Utilities Commission energy efficiency grant, which will be used to replace the existing low pressure sodium bulbs with LED lights, cutting the electricity bill significantly. The illuminated street light on the left – in front of Boondock’s Grille – shows an LED light already in place compared to the older, more inefficient bulbs.
Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD – Fort Fairfield hopes to significantly cut its electricity bill by using more energy efficient light bulbs in the ornamental street lights that line Main Street and other town roads.
According to Tony Levesque, community development director, the town has received a $58,290 Maine Public Utilities Commission energy efficiency grant that will be used to replace the existing low pressure sodium bulbs with LED lights.
“The old lights are very inefficient and use a lot of electricity,” he said. “We have every other light turned off trying to save electricity and money.
“There are 174 existing street lights that will be replaced. The town owns about 150 of them, plus there’s some at the school. It costs about $30,000 a year for those street lights,” said Levesque. “We expect to cut that down to $6,000 through the use of the newer LED lights. We are attempting to reduce our energy use by 80 percent. Our goal is to save the public money.”
In addition to Main Street, the ornamental street lights are also located on Presque Isle Street, High Street, on the bridge heading toward Limestone, and past Main Street toward Canada.
“We purchased the lights with mostly grant money around 1986,” Levesque said. “The last ones were purchased in 1992.
“I believe this community has been very forward in its thinking about utilizing grant funds and trying to identify projects when they become available,” he said. “In addition to receiving the grant, we’ve partnered with Efficiency Maine which has a program that if we change out an inefficient bulb to a more efficient one, they’ll give us upwards of 45 percent of the cost.”
The total replacement project cost is $104,400.
“When you subtract the $58,290 PUC grant, that leaves us a cash match of $46,110,” said Levesque. “However, we’ll be reimbursed $45,675 from Efficiency Maine’s energy rebate program, which leaves us spending less than $1,000 of public monies from local funds. The town of Fort Fairfield anticipates a $24,000 a year savings, so the community will see a very fast return on our investment.”
The work, which is expected to begin later this spring, will be done primarily by the Public Works Department.
“We’re hoping to get this done before we have to do any roadwork since the town’s Public Works crews will be doing the bulk of the work,” said Levesque. “All the electrician will have to do – who will be hired through a bid process – will be to remove the heads and put them back on.”
Levesque hopes the town will be a pilot project and show others “how this can be done to save money for the public.”
