The New York Power Authority (NYPA) will be enhancing Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Smart Street Lighting NY program to include a maintenance service option for interested municipalities. Smart Street Lighting NY, announced by the Governor in the 2018 State of the State and administered by NYPA, calls for at least 500,000 street lights throughout the state to be replaced with energy-saving LED technology by 2025.
The Power Authority released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for multiple contractors to provide routine and on-call maintenance services for LED street lighting fixtures installed by NYPA throughout the state. The new service program will be available to municipalities that have engaged NYPA to implement a LED street lighting conversion and have elected to install an asset management controls system on their street lighting system, which will reduce the number of failures and repairs needed after the installation is complete.
“The new maintenance service program for Smart Street Lighting NY will make the transition to LED street lighting even easier for our governmental customers,” Gil C. Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO, says. “Municipalities can avoid the responsibility of operating and maintaining their new lighting systems while still enjoying the benefits of increased safety, lower carbon emissions and reduced energy costs.”
NYPA is working with cities, towns, villages and counties throughout New York to fully manage and implement a customer’s transition to LED streetlight technology. NYPA provides upfront financing for the project, with payments to NYPA made in the years following from the cost-savings created by the reduced energy use of the LED streetlights, which are 50 to 65 percent more efficient than alternative street lighting options.
Through this statewide street lighting program, NYPA’s government customers are provided a wide-array of lighting options to help meet their individual needs, including specifications on the lights to incorporate SMART technology, which can be used for dozens of other functions, such as cameras and other safety features, weather sensors, Wi-Fi and energy meters.
NYPA has installed—or is in the process of installing—more than 128,000 LED streetlights at municipalities across the state. To learn more about the Smart Street Lighting NY program, visit the program webpage on NYPA’s website.
Responses to the RFP are expected by July 3, at which point NYPA will review the proposals and select firms for an anticipated program launch in September. The RFP can be viewed at: www.nypa.gov/procurement (registration required).
The technology upgrade to LED street lighting supports the Green New Deal, the nation’s leading clean energy and jobs agenda to aggressively put New York State on a path to economy-wide carbon neutrality, and is part of the Reforming the Energy Vision strategy to meet New York’s nation-leading goals to build a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers.
