CARIBOU, Maine — City Councilors agreed Dec. 11 to hire a firm to study switching more than 600 street lights in the city to LED to save thousands of dollars each year.
Caribou currently spends about $106,000 per year to lease and power street lights from Emera Maine. The existing sodium light bulbs in those street lights use more energy and don’t last as long as LED lights.
In an effort to save money, councilors are looking at having Emera switch the lights to LED or at hiring Real Term Energy to help the city purchase the street lamps and switch them to LED. A third option would be to do nothing and keep the contract with Emera for the existing street lights.
City Manager Dennis Marker said under the contract councilors were asked to sign, Caribou would pay Annapolis, Maryland-based Real Term Energy about $23,000 to study the 618 street lights in the city to determine the potential savings of owning the posts and switching to LED. He said the city has budgeted $35,000 altogether for the study.
If Caribou decided to go through with RTE’s deal, they would have to pay roughly $370 per light, or about $229,000 to buy and install the LED lights. That estimate did not include the purchase price for the light poles, which was not immediately available.
“[Real Term Energy] would help us out with financing of these things,” Marker said, “and we could utilize the cost savings to pay for the change.”
Marker also made it known that RTE has contacted several cities and towns in Aroostook County related to the deal, and Councilor Phil McDonough asked if any of them had yet agreed to the transition.
“Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield have both entered into the contract,” Marker said.
McDonough asked if the cost to Caribou would increase if only a few communities agreed to the contract with RTE. Public Works Director Dave Ouellette said that while it would be cheaper if Real Term Energy were able to install more lights, the company was likely aware that “only three or four communities” in Aroostook would agree to the deal.
Mayor Gary Aiken then asked about Emera’s LED plan, which also would involve transitioning to LED lights, but with Emera retaining ownership of the lights posts and continuing to lease them to the city. He asked how much the city would save by moving forward with that plan.
“Emera indicates it would cost us $70,000 a year instead of $106,000,” Marker said.
Aiken took issue with RealTerm Energy’s projection that the city would only pay $2,400 a year to power street lights through their deal.
Councilor David Martin said that, to his understanding, there would be an over 90 percent reduction in the cost of powering the lights.
Aiken countered that he had contacted some communities that have done projects with RealTerm Energy and learned that those towns “have had a 60 percent reduction in power costs.”
Using that percentage, Aiken estimated Caribou would still be paying $46,000 per year, not $2,400, with the RealTerm Energy plan.
Marker said the $2,400 projection came straight from Emera.
“Well someone’s made a mistake, Dennis,” Aiken said. “You can’t run all the street lights in Caribou for $2,400 a year.”
Martin added that “even if it’s $24,000” it would be worth it.
Councilors accepted a motion to move forward with the study, which would be conducted by RealTerm Energy. However, they amended their motion at the end of the meeting after Aiken raised additional concerns about the contract for the study potentially also binding the city to an agreement with RealTerm Energy for the entire project.
“A lot of the terms here are very open and very gray,” Aiken said, “I’m thinking this is probably the way to go anyway, but I don’t know the Emera deal and would have liked to know that first. I know $2,400 isn’t right, right off the bat. I have a lot of questions regarding the whole process.”
Marker clarified that he would not sign the agreement until there is clarification regarding the terms, and the Council subsequently amended the motion to move forward with the study.
On Dec. 13, Marker indicated that a RealTerm representative said the firm would include a study of Emera’s LED plan for the city’s consideration.
