Island-Wide Roll-Out Of New Street Lighting
[Updated with video] The “island-wide roll-out of a new street lighting scheme” was announced today [Jan 6], with Minister Of Public Works Craig Cannonier saying it will “benefit us environmentally, financially and also from a public safety point of view.”
Minister Cannonier’s Comments
Speaking at a press conference today, Minister Cannonier said: “Thank you for joining me today as I unveil an exciting new initiative for Bermuda.
“Today I am here with our partners at BELCO to announce the island-wide roll-out of a new street lighting scheme; a street lighting scheme which will benefit us environmentally, financially and also from a public safety point of view.
“But, before I share the details with you, let me provide some background of how we got here.In May 2014, the Government of Bermuda issued an RFP for the upgrading of the existing island-wide street lighting system from high energy consuming discharge lamps to a more energy efficient and longer lasting LED type. Proposals were received by five vendors.
“On March 31st 2015 Cabinet approved BELCO as the successful vendor for implementing the Government’s LED Street lighting Upgrade Project, which will bring Bermuda in line with internationally recognized standards for roadway lighting. The formal contract was signed on September 3rd, 2015.
“Building on BELCO’s 2014 LED Pilot Program implemented in the Trimingham Hill area, the installation phase of the Project will span two years and involves replacing approximately 4,000 High Pressure Sodium [HPS] fixtures with LED technology.
“This initiative represents a move towards utility-scale energy conservation, which is in alignment with the Government’s recently adopted National Electricity Sector Policy.
“Within the contract, which offers a 10-year warranty, Government has accepted BELCO’s ‘Lease to Purchase’ option based on a 10-year financing arrangement at the end of which, all installed LED street lights and their associated control and monitoring equipment becomes wholly owned by the Bermuda Government.
“This initiative will reduce the Government’s monthly street lighting energy bill by approximately 57% [or $14M over the next 20 years] while providing improved and more consistent lighting along Bermuda’s roadways.
“This project will have a positive environmental impact as it will promote energy conservation and achieve improved energy efficiency [approximately 988 tonnes per year decrease in CO2 emissions compared to existing street lights].
“It will also mean a reduction in light pollution, a higher level of safety for the community, better quality of lighting and improved light distribution.
“The previous high pressure sodium bulbs produced an orange-colored light with people reporting that they couldn’t find where they had parked their cars at night! The LED light has much better color rendering and far surpasses the standard for street lighting.
“This is a project that is going to make a noticeable difference to night lighting and installation began in November. BELCO will publish traffic notices to alert the public to when crews are working, and to any potential traffic delays.
“In closing, I would like to thank BELCO for partnering with us on this project.”
Denton Williams’ Comments
BELCO COO Denton Williams said, “BELCO is very pleased to have been selected as the vendor of choice for this initiative.
“Not only does it allow us to support significant savings to the country overall, the upgrading of street lighting for the Island follows directly in line with BELCO’s Integrated Resource Plan, which includes a significant focus on the need for energy efficiency and conservation moving forward.
“Increasing energy efficiency with new technology is in both the community and the utility’s best interest as it reduces the requirement of and cost for imported fuel. When coupled with other efficiency measures this initiative can result in a reduced need for capital investment in supply-side plant.
“The rollout for this initiative began in November 2015. BELCO has two crews who have been fully trained on the new technology and who are dedicated to this initiative, which will take approximately two years to fully implement.
“Installation of the new LED lighting fixtures began in Dockyard and is moving from the West End of the Island to the East End. To date, approximately 80 LED streetlights have been installed, in addition to the 14 that were previously installed for the Trimingham Hill Pilot Programme in 2014.
“In addition to the benefits already mentioned by Minister Cannonier, there are a number of additional benefits directly attributed to the innovative technology that we will be used including:
- Intelligent Asset Management
- Streamlined maintenance support based on ‘real-time’ diagnostic data reporting directly into the BELCO Operations Centre.
- Deployment of innovative controls and technology will help reduce BELCO’s dependency on receiving reports from the public when streetlights are out.
- On-board metering allowing for accurate billing vs. calculated bills
- The new technology enables Government to be billed for actual energy usage vs. energy usage based upon projected hours.
- More effective maintenance [i.e. Modular ‘plug & play’ parts]
- Will no longer need to replace entire fixture, if just one component is no longer working
- Built-in Surge protection”
Great news. This should make it easier to see all the potholes in the roads at night!!!
I agree, Lumpy. FIX THE ROADS FIRST!!
Although new (and additional) street lights are needed, repairing the road surface is more important.
Riding a motorcycle in Bermuda is like playing Russian roulette!
There are trenches, potholes, whoop-de-doos, gigantic cracks, four inch deep manholes, spilled & hardened blobs of cement and just about anything else one can think of all over this Island.
We, bike riders, are forced to swerve all over the place trying to save our backs and our vehicles from damage. Then, when you add in the fact that NO-ONE knows how to stay on their own side of the centre line, I am surprized that there aren’t MORE collisions than there already are.
street lights have been out in many sections of the island for ages.
at least now we’ll be able to see the potholes.
Are they going to fix the swing bridge before it collapses into the sea?
Not Solar powered?
They would need to be Lunar powered to work properly!
no they dont. solar energy cells act as batteries.
“no they dont. solar energy cells act as batteries.”
No they don’t. Batteries are batteries, solar cells convert light energy to electrical energy.
Im more worried about them decreasing my damm BELCO bill
Is Belco buying $35/barrel oil now, or are they stocked full with $135 oil?
Smart street lights? are they connected to belco by wifi? If government does not pay there bill can belco shut them off remotely? Can someone hack into the lights and shut them off?
Despite the usual naysayers, I am delighted by this partnership. Congratulations to all concerned, and excellent work for the road users of Bermuda.
At least when…walking by one and they go off… it’s not you…lol… come on… how many times have you walked by one of the sodium lights and it just goes out…. cool down I know…
Good job BELCO ..LED all the way…
Good long term investment but where is the seed money coming from? I thought our Government didn’t have any additional funds.
Is Govt pushing for these lights to take a furlough as well???
Article states a 10 year ‘Lease to Purchase’ agreement, so a large capital lump sum should not be needed. My guess is that this will be a new item in the yearly budget for street lighting. A shift of funds from the street light electricity bill (LEDs should use less watts than sodium lights) and less maintenance & replacement of the sodium lights may help to cover the lease.
That is way too complex for most to understand.
“That is way too complex for most to understand.”
High school level science is hard for bermudians
Clearly English is difficult for you….
Additional funds probably came from profits of America’s Cup.
sounds like you think America’s Cup was/is profitable. good to see you being positive for a change!!!
on another note, drinking tea improves vision at night. it would probably be cheaper to just give all residents life time supply of tea.
Toodles!
Yes… and soon after… BELCO will increase rates because they’re selling less kilwatt hours but need to turn greater profits to satisfy the share holders…
If you are jealous of shareholders gettinga return on their investment why don’t you buy some shares yourself. BELCO is a publically traded company. anyone can buy shares.
Maybe you can buy enough so that the dividends pay your power bill.
Glad to hear about this project but I also agree fix the roads. I am in a car and get so tired of swerving to avoid these things. Twice in one night I ran into a pot hole because I didn’t see it. DARN!! I screamed so loud I was vexed!! Cars are too expensive to be damaged when it can be avoided. So please Minister Craig Cannonier fix the roads.
Fred I agree with your comment also. Just wait. It is coming.
Would better and more reliable lighting help you to avoid obstacles in the road at night?
They are really doing all they can to make a certain minister look like a capable politician.. smdh… I guess perception really doesn’t reality…#talkaboutreputationrepair…
You mean civil servants doing their jobs, and putting into practice the plans created by the politicians? Yes, I suppose they are. Looks like they are doing a good job on this occasion too.
I am not referring to the civil servants.
So you don’t think the electrical section in W&E were involved. Certainly they are in the photograph.
Oohh are these the ones that can covertly listening to your conversations??
I bet the Government wanted to select BELCO anyway and the other bidders were just used as decoys.
I also bet the cost paid to BELCO for the LED lights is far higher than what most other vendors around the world would have supplied.
Oddly, this happens with every RFP selected by any Bermuda Government. I guess that is how BDA functions.
In several RFPs, I know of several bidders who quoted well lower than the selected bidder.
Names and details or you’re full of sh *t.
Take a break,, Is you® nose that brown from OBA that you are offended by any negative comment?
I’m not offended. I just think he’s full of sh *t.
@Encyclopedia All you need to do is to submit a PATI request. Just a point for your information though, very few RFPs select a winning bidder on the basis of price alone. Indeed, they would be foolish to. Lowest price very rarely equals best value, and more often then not end up costing a lot more.
Most RFPs will have a matrix which gives a weighted percentage to a range of criteria, typically including price, previous experience, references from previous clients, number of employees (including number of Bermudians), financial standing, etc etc, etc. It’s all right there on the Government procurement website if you chose to make a little effort and take a look.
Anyway, make that PATI request, and then come back and let us know how you got on.
You must forget that several years ago, LED street lighting pilots were undertaken. The fixtures that were installed (not by BELCO) where of very poor quality. The lights ended up being switched back to the yellow HPS fixtures.
PLP friends and family, trust me. Unsuitable equipment which was never going to work, but looked good at the time and made certain people a lot of money.
This is why we are having a commission investigation.
Mr Cannonier when asked about having the trees cut back by contracting it out to landscapers, he said Government doesn’t have any money to do it, now you’re telling me that they have money to put led lights for the west end of the island to east end of the island.where is this money coming from?
The answer was right there in the story, obviously you stopped reading too soon.
“Lease to purchase”