District of Summerland streetlight upgrade reaps rebate

Jan 15, 2019

Summerland, BC – The District of Summerland is achieving impressive savings by making the switch to LED streetlights supported by FortisBC’s rebates. Today at 2:30pm at Summerland’s Municipal Hall (13211 Henry Avenue), FortisBC will be presenting a cheque to the Mayor of The District of Summerland, Toni Boot, for $89,000 in support of their street lighting upgrade project.

“Summerland is committed to taking a leadership role by investing in projects that save energy, reduce expenses, and improve the safety of our community,” says Mayor Toni Boot. “Upgrading our streetlights to LEDs provides our community with high quality lighting at a fraction of the cost while enhancing our commitment to dark skies and protecting wildlife corridors, as we can be much more precise with LED lighting. We thank FortisBC for their valuable contribution to this project and the other energy-saving measures we are undertaking as a community.”

Switching to LED lighting reduces consumption by more than half and reduces operations and maintenance costs due to their longer lifecycle. By providing rebates for qualifying products, FortisBC helps reduce the upfront cost of the LED fixtures, reducing the barrier for communities to move forward with these projects. 

The energy savings from the upgrade of 902 of Summerland’s streetlights is estimated to be just over 594,000 kilowatt hours each year and has the potential to reduce operating expenses by $72,000 annually for Summerland. 

“We appreciate the District of Summerland’s ongoing pursuit of energy savings and congratulate them on this latest upgrade,” says Juan Rincon, key account manager, commercial and industrial with FortisBC. 

Over the last three years, FortisBC has helped communities reduce the energy used by streetlights by 1.5 million kilowatt hours. This project, together with others, will quadruple these savings by 2020, bringing the total expected energy savings to 6.3 million kilowatt hours annually, or the equivalent of providing electricity to more than 430 homes.  

To learn more about FortisBC rebates, visit fortisbc.com/rebates.

 

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