Westbrook’s cost- and energy-saving conversion of its streetlights from high-pressure sodium-vapor fixtures to LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs is nearly complete, with a few punch list items to be addressed by the contractor, according to Ad Hoc Energy Committee (EC) Chair Chris Ehlert.

EC member Bill Frederickson first proposed the project to the EC in 2014, said Ehlert, as there was a “trend of municipalities buying streetlights [from their local energy companies] and replacing them with LEDs to reduce their energy costs.”

The committee kept an eye on the market, the quality and light output of LEDs, and the experiences of other municipalities before going out to bid in 2017. The project was overseen by EC member Bill Fish.

According to the request for proposals (RFP) for the conversion porject, energy and maintenance costs for the town’s streetlights was $90,000 per year, which included an annual charge by Eversource of $37,400. The RFP projected an annual savings to the town of $77,000.

The town purchased its 626 streetlights from Eversource for $180,398 and contracted with Siemens, the winning bidder, to replace the existing fixtures with LEDs, at a cost of roughly $192,000. The cost will be offset by a state Clean Energy Fund rebate of $55,000.

In 2018, six sample LED lights were installed in various parts of town, each with a different intensity and hue. Residents were asked to evaluate them and record their preferences via an online survey.

Members of the EC themselves examined each of the town’s existing streetlights to evaluate what types of fixtures were required, based on each light’s location, such as residential street, major intersection, or near a municipal building.

The poles are being entered into the town’s GIS (geographic information system), which enables the town to ascertain the location of outages by an address or pole number. That work is being completed. Now that the fixtures are owned by the town, streetlight outage reports should be called in to the town’s Department of Public Works (DPW), not Eversource.

“We’ve gotten very few complaints about difference in light” between the old and new systems, said Ehlert. “So it’s been very successful.

“To date, since we’ve purchased the lights from Eversource, we have saved the town $70,000 in the first year,” he said. “[O]ver the lifetime of the bulb, which is supposed to be a 20-year life on these LED lights, we will save or mitigate energy costs by a million dollars.”

Ehlert expects the punch list to be completed by the end of this year.

“Bill Fish has done a great job of shepherding this project,” said Ehlert. “He really did all the legwork and research. He’s put in thousands of volunteer hours.

“The DPW has been our main support,” he added.