LED retrofit expected to save $690,000 a year in energy costs for lighting

Work has been completed in the Casper area and is underway in the Cheyenne area on a statewide project to convert all of WYDOT’s roadway lighting to LED, an upgrade expected to save the department about $690,000 a year in energy costs.

When completed next summer, the project will make Wyoming the first state in the nation to have all its highway lighting upgraded to LED.

The upgrades being completed by Casper’s Modern Electric Co. will spread across the rest of the state over the course of the coming year, ending with the retrofitting of the lighting in the Green River Tunnels on I-80.

The project will upgrade 5,267 light fixtures, including high mast tower lighting at interchanges and rest areas, roadside and area lighting, parking area fixtures and lighting at road closure gates.

Total cost for the project, which also includes energy efficiency upgrades to WYDOT buildings, is $10.7 million. It is being funded by a 15-year bond to be paid off with the money saved on utility bills.

The bonding is made possible through the Wyoming Energy Conservation Improvement Program managed by the Wyoming Business Council.

The project is the second phase of WYDOT’s Statewide Energy Savings Program that began in 2012. The department expects the savings on utility costs over the life of the upgrades completed during both phases to reach $16.5 million.

“That’s money that won’t be going to utility companies, and that will be available for other uses,” WYDOT State Field Operations Engineer Mark Eisenhart said. “The beauty of this program is that it allows us to make these upgrades and reduce our energy needs without having to use money that could be used on the highways.”

Work on the LED upgrades will be staggered across WYDOT’s five operations districts to minimize traffic disruptions. The retrofit process is expected to take four to six weeks to complete in each district.

The LED lights are expected to cut WYDOT’s costs for lighting highways by nearly 40 percent, and the longer-lasting LED bulbs will also significantly reduce maintenance costs.

“Our maintenance of that roadway lighting is going to be dramatically less, because now, instead of someone having to get up there and change out those bulbs maybe every year or every other year, we’ll only have to do that every 10 to 15 years, depending on how the LED bulbs hold up,” Eisenhart said.

The first phase of the program focused on improving the energy efficiency of department buildings around the state. Over the past year it has helped save more than $215,000 in utility and operational costs. That work also was funded with a 15-year bond.

In addition to the savings on utility bills, the upgrades also result in rebate payments from utility companies for the reduced demand on their infrastructure.

WYDOT received $145,000 in rebates from Rocky Mountain Power Co. and Cheyenne, Light Fuel and Power Co. for the reduction in demand that resulted from the first phase of upgrades.

Eisenhart said completion of the second phase is expected to bring $180,000 in rebates from power companies.

WYDOT’s partner on the project is OpTerra Energy Services, a company that focuses on energy-saving projects for public agencies. OpTerra completed the energy audit that identified the potential energy savings the upgrades will produce, and it guarantees those projected savings will be realized.