Lloydminster and three other communities will soon receive streetlight upgrades. SaskPower is upgrading about 8,800 streetlights in Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and the Border City to Light Emitting Diode (LED) fixtures this year. The work is part of a ten-year project to replace all of SaskPower’s nearly 100,000 streetlights in the province. Shawn Schmidt, SaskPower Vice-President of Distribution & Customer Services, says it’ll help SaskPower become greener.
“LEDs use only 40 to 60 per cent of the energy required to power the High-Pressure Sodium Vapour (HPSV) streetlights currently in use in the province,” said Schmidt. “Converting all Saskatchewan’s streetlights to LED will reduce the energy demand for street lighting and help reduce SaskPower’s carbon footprint.”
In addition to using less power than HPSV, LEDs have a much longer, 20-year life expectancy. This low-maintenance feature of LEDs will mean fewer streetlight outages, improving public and employee safety and freeing crews to focus on other work. SaskPower’s LED heads will illuminate the same area as traditional streetlights and are dark-sky compliant, meaning they should reduce light pollution.
LEDs were piloted in a variety of environments in late 2017 before proceeding to a full rollout. So far conversions have been completed in heavy traffic corridors in large cities, provincial/national parks, and heavy traffic corridors in small cities. During the next eight years LED conversions are planned for large towns, small city subdivisions, small towns, villages, hamlets and rural areas. The work will be performed by SaskPower crews and contractors.