City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Energy Authority, and Ameresco Begin Trial Installations for the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project

May 29, 2023

Ten residential blocks and five driveways receive trial LED fixtures

PHILADELPHIA — The City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA), in partnership with Ameresco, Inc., have launched trial installations for the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project (PSIP), a comprehensive light emitting diode (LED) streetlighting, controls and networking project. The trial installations kick-off the stakeholder engagement period for the multi-year, citywide project to convert over 120,000 streetlights to LED fixtures. The project is designed to reduce energy costs, improve operations and maintenance capabilities, and enhance nighttime visibility for pedestrians and motorists.The trial installations of LED fixtures are happening at 10 Philadelphia residential blocks and five driveway locations, which were selected based on their public safety and lighting reliability needs. The trial installations are live at the following locations:

Throughout this trial installation period, Ameresco, the Energy Services Company (ESCO) selected to manage the project, will work with residents, community leaders and partners within the trial neighborhoods to inform Philadelphia area residents of the LED installations and collect their feedback before permanent fixtures are installed. The company is employing residents from Philadelphia to work with project partners, including Evari GIS Consulting and IJB Electric, to assist with the audit, design, and implementation of the LED street lighting upgrades. By working in conjunction with local community partners, Ameresco intends to exceed Philadelphia's job creation and workforce development objectives and create lasting opportunities for residents that extend beyond the project term.The completed project will upgrade the City's streetlights from high pressure sodium luminaires to LED fixtures. Updated luminaires are designed to be fully controllable through remote monitoring on a secure network known as a Lighting Management System (LMS), allowing the City to better manage the performance of its lighting system through instantaneous updates on outages. The City aims to significantly reduce its carbon emissions, while simultaneously improving both streetscape and nighttime visibility in a cost-effective and energy-efficient manner through the completion of this project."As we move towards a resilient and climate-ready Philadelphia, the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project exemplifies the win-win infrastructure investments the city needs," said Mayor Jim Kenney. "LED streetlights will enhance the quality of life for all Philadelphians by providing better, more reliable lighting. It will also help us advance toward our city's goals for Vision Zero, by providing better visibility to reduce traffic crashes, as well as ensure our continued progress toward meeting our 2030 energy and climate goals.""Our city's street lights have been in use since the 1970s and we are long overdue for an upgrade," said Carlton Williams, Commissioner for the Department of Streets. "Improving Philadelphia's infrastructure with our residents’ support is one of our top priorities. Projects like this enable us to add remote optimized lighting and outage monitoring that will create operational efficiencies for our street lighting management system, while simultaneously providing city residents with better streetscape visibility and cost savings.""We are excited to kick off stakeholder engagement for this once-in-a-generation energy conservation project," said Saleem Chapman, Chief Resilience Officer and Director of the Office of Sustainability. "We are excited to hear from stakeholders on how to maximize the community benefits of this project while also advancing Philadelphia toward our goal of becoming a carbon-neutral city by 2050.""This is the largest energy efficiency project the city has ever done, and it will touch every single neighborhood," said Emily Schapira, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Energy Authority. "We know how important it is to get it right, and we are excited to begin the public engagement process.""With public safety on the minds of all Philadelphians, we’re eager to hear from residents on how to best meet their community's needs with longer-lasting, better performing LED lights," said City Council President Darrell L. Clarke, 5th District. "The project is yet another example of how clean energy is a tool for addressing Philadelphia's biggest challenges."As the leading ESCO provider of LED street lighting conversions and the largest non-utility purchaser of LED streetlights, Ameresco brings national street lighting and controls experience to the project. In total, Ameresco has converted nearly 650,000 streetlights to LED light sources, of which over 50 percent are controlled by a lighting management system."Our experience leading massive street lighting conversion projects with some of the largest cities in the U.S., like Chicago and Phoenix, has prepared us well for our work with the City of Philadelphia. As one of the oldest cities in the country, Philadelphia has a unique and historic streetscape that will stand to benefit from such a comprehensive LED street lighting overhaul," said Peter Christakis, Senior Vice President of Construction and Operations at Ameresco. "Our goal is to outfit the city with state-of-the-art solutions designed to greatly reduce light pollution and ensure a cleaner, safer and healthier future for all Philadelphia residents."The PEA led the procurement process in close coordination with the City of Philadelphia and selected Ameresco to lead the street lighting project in October 2021. The trial installations started in early November 2022 with the lighting design expected to reach completion by early 2023. Once the design is completed, implementation is expected to commence by spring 2023.To learn more about the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project and provide feedback on the trial LED streetlight options, please visit phillystreetlightimprovement.com/feedback.

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