City Picks French Firm for Streetlight Project

BY DENNIS DOMRZALSKI A French firm that manages streetlights in 1,000 cities around the world has won the bid to help the city of Albuquerque develop a plan to convert 19,000 city-owned streetlights to LED fixtures. Citelum Group, which has streetlight projects in 14 counties, was selected to help the city develop its two-year plan to replace its high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor lights with LED lights. At full conversion, the city could potentially shave $3.4 million a year off its $5.5 million-a-year streetlight electric bill, said Melanie Martinez of the city's Department of Municipal Development. “By converting street lights to LED fixtures, the City of Albuquerque will be able to save millions of dollars annually on energy and maintenance costs,” Mayor Richard Berry said in a news release announcing the project. “Moving forward with the conversion to LED street lighting is another example of how the City of Albuquerque is one of the leaders in adopting advanced technology.” LED lights are more efficient than sodium or mercury vapor lights and they last three to five times longer, Martinez said. The project's first phase will cost $75,000 and will involve a preliminary audit to determine how many lights should be replaced. Once the cost of replacing those lights is determined, the city would have to figure how to pay for them. Five firms submitted bids for the project. The City Council will have to approve any contract to Citelum.      

City Picks French Firm for Streetlight Project was originally seen on FreeABQ Blog