PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — With nearly half of the city’s new LED lights having been installed through early 2019, Presque Isle is projecting to save thousands of dollars in electricity costs this year and more than $1 million over the next 20 years.
Last December, the Presque Isle City Council approved the city remaining in its current electric contract with Emera Maine instead of accepting another LED light installation and maintenance agreement through the Annapolis, Maryland-based company RealTerm Energy.
Under the RealTerm proposal, city officials would have had to purchase all 761 LED lights for a cost of $325,000, with the option of buying a maintenance plan for $20,730. Without a maintenance plan, the city would have had to set aside its own funds to pay for yearly maintenance of the lights.
Presque Isle City Manager Martin Puckett said the city councilors ultimately chose to stay with Emera because of that contract’s similarity to what they had for high-pressure sodium light bulbs and due to long-term cost savings.
“Under our contract with Emera, they own the lights and pay for the maintenance and operation costs. We only have to pay for electric costs,” Puckett said.
He said the councilors reduced the 2019 budget for electric costs from $153,864 to $128,204, a $25,000 difference. Starting in 2020 he expects even more cost savings to go into effect because this year the council also paid for a 2018 inventory of all city lights conducted by RealTerm Energy.
“If we look at a 12 month difference between the costs, in 2018 our budget was $153,864 and we anticipate 2020 to be $80,000, a savings of $73,000, a 48 percent reduction in street light costs,” Puckett said.
Thus far, Emera has installed 256 out of the 761 planned LED lights, with all lights replacing former sodium bulbs in their same respective locations. The company has focused first on higher traffic areas on or near Main Street and nearby residential areas. Puckett noted that LED lights with higher wattages will be placed on high-traffic streets and intersections while residential streets will receive lights of lower wattages due to privacy concerns.
Although the city councilors rejected RealTerm Energy’s proposal for LED lights, they will still pursue many suggestions that the company made in their 2018 inventory, which included GIS mapping. A few of those suggestions included installing high-wattage lights in business parking lots and adding more lights to Airport Drive and the Skyway Industrial Park to accommodate folks driving to and from the Presque Isle International Airport.
As of now, Puckett is unsure when Emera will complete the LED light installations, as the frequent winter storms have hindered their ability to move forward with the project as quickly as they had hoped. But he is hopeful that once all the lights are shining, residents will see the vast improvement over the previous sodium streetlights.
“LED lights produce a much clearer, pure white light whereas the sodium lights became more distorted over time and had a yellow tint,” Puckett said. “What we know as of now is that all the lights have been ordered and that Emera will work to have them all up as soon as possible.”
