By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org
News staff
 |
| Charlestown Planning Commission proposal for street lights |
Editor’s Note: When Town Council Boss Tom Gentz (CCA) discussed the idea
of
buying the street lights from National Grid over a year ago, the Planning
Commissions thought this was a great idea – provided the town then turned them
off.
PROVIDENCE — For three
years, the Washington County Regional Planning Council (WCRPC) has been trying to take control of
local streetlights on behalf of its 10 towns. The collaborative, and the rest
of the state's municipalities, may be getting its wish as new legislation (H5935 and S836) in the General Assembly seeks to make
municipal ownership a reality.
Rhode Island spends
more than $14 million a year to power and maintain streetlights. According to
the WCRPC, Washington County spends about $1.2 million annually to maintain its
streetlights — about $750,000 goes toward maintenance. The WCRPC estimates it
can cut that expense to about $250,000. The remaining $350,000 can be reduced
through using energy-saving light bulbs. Overall, the payback should take
between one and three years, according to the council.
“There’s an enormous
opportunity to do something differently,” said Jeff Broadhead, WCRPC’s executive
director.
The current system
doesn't offer financial or environmental incentives for National Grid to
upgrade to energy-efficient light bulbs. Years of rule changes have made it a
complicated process, Broadhead said. “It’s nobody’s fault," he said.
"It’s just the way the system evolved. There’s just a better way to do it
now.”
Streetlights don’t
have meters. Municipalities pay a fee, or tariff, based on an estimated cost
for traditional light bulbs, as well as the cost of maintenance. The
legislation would allow the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to create a
new tariff for the fixture service and new rates for low-energy lighting.
Under the program,
National Grid would sell the streetlights to cities and towns based the cost,
minus depreciation.
National Grid has
endorsed the legislation, saying it’s willing to part with the contracts in
order to focus on its core business of power delivery. "We have worked
with the Senate and House sponsors of the streetlight legislation, which is
enabling in nature," National Grid spokesman David Graves said. "It
does not mandate that cities and towns purchase the streetlights in their
locality, but it does provide a vehicle to own."
The legislation is
modeled after a 1997 Massachusetts law that allowed municipal streetlamp
ownership. Connecticut also permits streetlamp ownership. So far, 70 cities and
towns in Massachusetts have made the switch. The average savings were between
15 percent and 50 percent.
The prospect of owning
streetlights is good news for municipalities. East Providence looked at buying
the maintenance contracts for it streetlamps several years ago, but found the
project too expensive. In January, the city simply turned off 1,000
streetlights to save money.
Steve Coutu, head of
East Providence's Department of Public Works, welcomes the new legislation. “It
certainly would be helpful because it’s a significant expense," he said.
The PUC must also
approve the legislation if it becomes law. A recent change in the legislation
requires that a city or town buy all of their streetlights, not just a limited
number.
House sponsor Deborah
Ruggiero, D-Middletown/Jamestown, said each municipality must crunch the
numbers. "A city or town will have to do a cost analysis, because once the
leave they cannot go back."
