Alliant begins replacing street lights with LED lights

CEDAR RAPIDS - Alliant Energy has begun to replace the first of about 12, its high-pressure sodium streetlights with LED ones here and in 58 other communities in its Cedar Rapids metro service area.

Spokesman Justin Foss said the utility plans to replace about 2,000 lights a year as the sodium bulbs burn out or stop working.

The light-emitting diode models, he said, require less maintenance than high-pressure sodium lights and provide a less yellow glow, with a more uniform dispersion of light and fewer dark spots. Foss said.

He said the cost of an LED unit is $370 while a high-pressure sodium bulb runs less than $20. But LED lights have fewer parts and are less prone to malfunctioning - so while Alliant's maintenance program calls for sodium lights to be serviced once every five years, or sooner if they fail, LEDs aren't expected to need servicing for at least 10 and perhaps 20 years.

The energy savings and lower maintenance costs that come with LED lights make the conversion financially sensible, Foss said.

“We know that communities have been asking for this for a long time,” he said. “Until now, the cost to make the switch hasn't been justifiable. Now we've identified a way to make the cost work.”

Foss said the utility estimates that 100-watt-equivalent LED lights use 30 fewer watts of electricity to operate. Once all 12,000 are in place, he said, they should save 1.4 million kilowatt hours of power a year - enough to meet the annual electrical needs of 128 homes.

Alliant owns most of the more than 10,000 streetlights in Cedar Rapids. The city also has an LED replacement program in the works for the 800-plus lights it owns - the new models are in place, for instance, at 16th Avenue and Stoney Point Road SW.

Alliant's Cedar Rapids metro service area reaches to Solon, North Liberty and rural Amana in the south, Norway, Van Horne and Garrison to the west, Brandon, Urbana and Walker to the north and Monticello, rural Tipton and West Branch to the east.