Street Lighting in New York

In a docket revolving around RG&E and NYSEG, the commission deemed reasonable their joint proposal to offer municipal customers the option of having the companies install utilityowned light-emitting diode (LED) street lighting systems.

The commission observed that this was not the first time such programs have been suggested. It remarked that a similar project had been adopted for O&R and Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation earlier this year. The utilities averred that they would provide municipalities with a choice of several correlated color temperature LEDs, with the LED street lights available to interested cities and towns on a first-come, first-served basis.

The companies posited that because LEDs are so cost-efficient and carry other benefits as well — such as decreases in electricity consumption and reductions in carbon footprints — they expect municipal demand for the LED street lighting systems to be high. The commission commented that the brighter illumination from LEDs has been shown to improve public safety, too. Yet another benefit, the PSC said, is advancement of the REV policy, given the energy-efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction attributes of LEDs.

The commission stated that the REV program is predicated in part on local governments having more input and control as to the sources of their electricity and their consumption. The commission found that the RG&E/NYSEG plan for LED street lighting installations could offer municipalities meaningful cost reductions while simultaneously promoting the state’s clean energy directives. The commission estimated that a city could save as much as $63 per street light per year by converting to LED technology. In authorizing the two utilities to proceed with their plan, the PSC noted that municipalities had been able in the past to go with LED street lighting systems in place of existing incandescent systems, but only if the cities took actual ownership of the new street lights. Under the RG&E/NYSEG plan, however, municipalities can receive new LED street lights while the utilities retain ownership and therefore responsibility for any associated maintenance.

The commission stated that the change marked a win-win situation for local governments. Re New York State Electric & Gas Corp. and Rochester Gas & Electric Corp., Cases 16-E-0710, 16-E-0711, Nov. 16, 2017 (N.Y.P.S.C.).