NYPA Press Release

Energy-Efficient Lighting Upgrades to Result in Energy Cost Savings, Emissions Reductions

New York State More Than Halfway Towards Achieving Goal of Converting 500,000 Street Lights to LED Technology by 2025 Under Smart Street Lighting NY Program

WHITE PLAINS—The New York Power Authority (NYPA) and the Town of New Hartford in Oneida County began the installation of energy-efficient LED streetlights throughout the town as part of the state’s Smart Street Lighting NY program. New York has now replaced more than 300,000 of its streetlights with LED fixtures, a significant milestone in the state’s goal to replace at least 500,000 streetlights with LED technology by 2025 under Smart Street Lighting NY. The initiative directly supports the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the most aggressive climate change law in the nation, through the increased use of energy efficiency to annually reduce electricity demand by three percent—equivalent to 1.8 million New York households—by 2025.

The nearly $1.1 million project, implemented and financed by the Power Authority, includes the replacement of 586 existing fixtures with state-of-the-art energy efficient LED streetlights. The project is expected to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 28.5 metric tons annually—the emissions equivalent of consuming more than 3,200 gallons of gasoline. Installation began in February and is expected to complete in August of this year.

“Smart Street Lighting NY helps municipalities upgrade critical infrastructure in an energy-efficient and cost-effective manner,” said Anthony J. Picente, Jr., NYPA trustee and Oneida County Executive. “NYPA’s partnership with the Town of New Hartford will result in significant local energy savings while helping New York State achieve its goal to replace 500,000 streetlights with LED technology by 2025.”

 “In replacing our streetlights, we are increasing New Hartford’s energy efficiency while realizing significant energy cost savings,” said New Hartford Town Supervisor Paul A. Miscione. “Smart Street Lighting NY provided our town with a tremendous opportunity to upgrade our critical infrastructure at no expense to the taxpayer, and we are proud to partner with the Power Authority in this effort.”

Some additional municipalities that have already converted to LED streetlights in collaboration with NYPA include: Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, and White Plains, among others.

Smart Street Lighting NY: Energy Efficient and Economically Advantageous

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.

To further advance the state’s effort to replace existing New York streetlights, in 2020, NYPA launched a new maintenance service to provide routine and on-call maintenance services for LED street lighting fixtures installed by NYPA throughout the state. The new service is 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, reducing the number of failures and repairs needed after installation is complete.

To learn more about the Smart Street Lighting NY program, visit the program webpage on NYPA’s website.

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New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $33 billion in 102 large-scale renewable and transmission projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.6 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting nearly 158,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2020, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities, and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.

About NYPA
NYPA is the largest state public power organization in the nation, operating 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 70 percent of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. For more information visit www.nypa.gov and follow us on Twitter @NYPAenergy, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and LinkedIn.