State Goal Achieved Nearly Three Years Ahead of Schedule with Ongoing Installation of Nearly 4,000 Streetlights in Town of Ramapo
LED Lights Reduce Energy Use, Lower Carbon Emissions and Improve Community Safety
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that New York State has achieved its goal of replacing 500,000 streetlights with energy-efficient SMART LED fixtures throughout the state through the Smart Street Lighting NY program. The ongoing installation of nearly 4,000 streetlights throughout the Town of Ramapo, financed and implemented by the New York Power Authority, achieved New York’s goal of replacing 500,000 streetlights with LED technology nearly three years ahead of the program’s scheduled goal of the end of 2025. The program directly supports the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the most aggressive clean energy law in the nation, through the increased use of energy efficiency by participating municipalities to annually reduce their electricity demand by three percent — equivalent to 1.8 million New York households — by 2025. State and local officials joined together in Ramapo today to celebrate the program milestone with the replacement of the 500,000th streetlight in the state with an LED fixture.
“New York is making incredible progress towards our climate agenda every day, and the latest example is the completion of the Smart Street Lighting NY program nearly three years ahead of schedule,” Governor Hochul said. “This common-sense program saves municipalities money and curbs statewide electricity use, and I urge New York communities to continue to work with state partners to advance energy-efficient upgrades.”
Smart Street Lighting NY, and its goal to replace 500,000 streetlights with LED fixtures, was announced by then-Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul in 2018 and has been administered by the New York Power Authority. The New York State Public Service Commission has directly supported the program by facilitating the sale of streetlights from electric utilities to municipalities across the state.
New York Power Authority President and CEO Justin E. Driscoll said, “Municipalities across the state have been participating in the Smart Street Lighting NY program because it is among the most effective ways to upgrade critical energy infrastructure, save tax-payer dollars, and increase municipal energy efficiency. The Power Authority has partnered with more than 130 municipalities throughout New York to achieve the state’s goal of replacing 500,000 streetlights with LED fixtures—an incredible achievement that has significantly reduced New York’s electricity use. I’m especially proud of NYPA’s role in leading this effort working with municipalities across the state.”
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, the Power Authority’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, 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 the Power Authority 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.
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 80 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, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and LinkedIn.
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