ALBANY — The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) today approved a plan by Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. to provide energy-efficient street lighting to municipalities that are interested in having them installed. Under the proposal, municipalities in Central Hudson’s service territory will now have the option to switching to cost-effective LED street lighting as a means of reducing their power expenses, carbon footprint and improving public safety.

“The Central Hudson proposal is just the type of utility innovation that we hope to see throughout the State,” said Chair Audrey Zibelman. “The adoption of LED lighting can save municipalities up to 60 percent of their electricity costs for street lighting. Historically, municipalities could only achieve these savings through their willingness to take over ownership of the street lights from the utility, an expenditure many communities found they could not afford. With the Central Hudson proposal, municipalities will be able to achieve these savings without burdening taxpayers or other utility consumers.”

In 2010, the Commission approved an additional option to Central Hudson’s tariff to offer an LED street light that would be owned and maintained by the municipality. Today’s decision expands upon that decision with the addition of utility-owned street lights. With approval of the new LED options, Central Hudson will be able to offer municipal customers who use utility-owned street lights the option to convert to LED street lights that Central Hudson will own and maintain.

The utility will offer four LED fixtures, each at a different wattage; 39W, 82W, 93W, and 153W. The approval of the new LED street lighting fixtures will be welcomed news for the municipalities in the region that had been asking for such a new option. Central Hudson performed a cost study for each LED fixture to determine the annual fixture charge required to recover the revenue requirement over the expected life of each of the four LED fixtures.

The LED annual fixture charges are lower than the majority of current street lighting fixtures in the company’s service territory.  Including the energy savings, all fixture types are estimated to provide annual savings. The savings for the majority of fixture types that would be replaced range from approximately $30 to $90, annually, per street light. There are approximately 25,000 such street lights in Central Hudson’s service territory. With total conversion, annual taxpayer savings could approach $1.3 million annually.

As part of this push to improve energy efficiency, Central Hudson will be replacing no less than 15 percent of company-owned fixtures in any municipality and no less than 25 percent of the company-owned fixtures in the company’s service territory, based on requested volume. As a result, all municipalities could have company-owned and maintained LED fixtures within four years, an aggressive change-over, but one that is achievable.

As street lighting technologies continue to advance, it will be important to take advantage of additional functionalities that can improve costs and public safety, while meeting and balancing both the environmental and economic impacts of conversions. To that end, universal outreach and education will be a key component to the overall success of LED street light conversion. The Commission also specified its desire to see similar plans from other utilities in the State. In New York City’s case, the City owns the street lights and began converting in 2009. It is scheduled to complete the conversion in 2017.  

About Reforming the Energy Vision

Under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision, New York State is spurring clean energy innovation and attracting new investment to build a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers. Reforming the Energy Vision encompasses groundbreaking regulatory reform to integrate clean energy into the core of our power grid, redesigned programs and strategies to unlock private capital, and active leadership in deploying innovative energy solutions across the State’s own public facilities and operations. Reforming the Energy Vision will enable a dynamic, clean energy economy operating at a scale that will stimulate opportunities for communities across the state to create jobs and drive local economic growth, while protecting our environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. Successful initiatives already launched as part of Reforming the Energy Vision include NY Sun, NY Green Bank, NY Prize, K-Solar, and a commitment to improve energy affordability for low-income communities.

Today’s decision may be obtained by going to the Commission Documents section of the Commission’s Web site at www.dps.ny.gov and entering Case Number 15-E-0126 in the input box labeled "Search for Case/Matter Number". Many libraries offer free Internet access. Commission documents may also be obtained from the Commission’s Files Office, 14th floor, Three Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12223 (518-474-2500). If you have difficulty understanding English, please call us at 1-800-342-3377 for free language assistance services regarding this press release.