Government Technology

LEDs, Centralized Control Illuminate Anchorage's Green Initiatives


January 12, 2009 By

Anchorage, Alaska, sought a way to make its 16,500 streetlights more energy efficient. What the city found was plan to replace current streetlights -- or high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps -- with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that are connected to a centralized control system.

On Aug. 12, 2008, Anchorage spent $2.2 million on 4,300 LEDs to retrofit its streetlights, according to Michael Barber, the city's lighting program manager. Currently 1,200 of the LEDs have been installed, and the city hopes to have the remaining 3,100 in place by May. Barber said by May the city also hopes to have completed the next round of budgets, so it can work toward its goal of retrofitting all of the streetlights.

Barber said the No. 1 reason for the streetlight retrofit was to save money through energy efficiency. He reported that retrofitted streetlights used 50 percent to 60 percent less energy than the HPS lamps.

The LEDs are connected to a centralized control system. "There's a platform, a map and GPS locations of all the lights, and we're getting data sent to that central location about lights all over the city," Barber said. He later added, "Either over a power line or radio frequency, we've got a light that's communicating with a server and telling it, 'I'm burning at this temperature.' Or, 'For some reason I'm sucking up way more energy than I should.'"

Before the centralized system, city staff or residents had to physically see and report a burned out streetlight. Now the city knows immediately when a light needs to be replaced or if it's having problems. However, one of the benefits of LEDs is their long life span. Although Barber said LEDs cost $500 to $1,000 each, they last about five times longer than the HPS bulbs -- or up to 10 years.


View Full Story


You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/featured/LEDs-Centralized-Control-Illuminate-Anchorages-Green.html


| More

Comments

James H. Smith    |    Commented January 21, 2009

We have LED tube lighting to replace those toxic fluorescent tubes and reduce your energy consumption up to 85%. Our LED tube lighting along with our wide scope of application are 100% recyclable. With a lifespan of up to 100,000 hours. I hope the drop in your wattage consumption was down to 36 watts per light (That's whats possible).

James H. Smith    |    Commented January 21, 2009

We have LED tube lighting to replace those toxic fluorescent tubes and reduce your energy consumption up to 85%. Our LED tube lighting along with our wide scope of application are 100% recyclable. With a lifespan of up to 100,000 hours. I hope the drop in your wattage consumption was down to 36 watts per light (That's whats possible).

James H. Smith    |    Commented January 21, 2009

We have LED tube lighting to replace those toxic fluorescent tubes and reduce your energy consumption up to 85%. Our LED tube lighting along with our wide scope of application are 100% recyclable. With a lifespan of up to 100,000 hours. I hope the drop in your wattage consumption was down to 36 watts per light (That's whats possible).


Add Your Comment

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. We reserve the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.


Collaboration for the Public Sector



Collaborative Justice: Transforming Criminal Justice Services Through Unified Collaboration
This issue brief examines video collaboration in every stage of the human justice process, demonstrating how this technology can not only make services more efficient, affordable, and accessible.

Cloud-Based Services Accelerate Public Sector Adoption of Video Collaboration
Today, thanks to new cloud technologies and high-quality networks, mobile video services - which provide not only cost savings but which help governmental interactions become more efficient - are more feasible than ever before.

Modernization as a Service: Acquiring IT through Innovative Procurement

Five Ways Collaboration is Driving Government Performance

Mobile Video Collaboration: The New Business Reality