Cities across California are excited about the energy and maintenance savings potential of LED street lights. As a leader in energy efficiency, PG&E is working with lighting manufacturers across the nation, the Department of Energy, and state and local customers to help bring this technology to market.

PG&E’s LED Street Light Program is scheduled to launch in May 2009. Initially, it will apply only to customer-owned street lights billed at PG&E’s non-metered LS-2 rate. Financial incentives for metered customer-owned street lights will follow at a later date, as will incentives for other types of outdoor LED lighting.

Program Components
The LED Street Light Program will offer two types of incentives for customers interested in replacing traditional street lights billed at a fixed LS-2 rate with LED fixtures:

First, customers who have installed or replaced existing street light fixtures with LED fixtures will be able to switch to a lower billing rate under the LS-2 schedule starting May 1, 2009.

Second, customers who perform such replacements will be eligible for a rebate for every qualified LED fixture purchased and installed after May 1, 2009. Detailed instructions about applying for the rebate will be provided soon.

LED Street Light Benefits
Key advantages of quality LED street lights include:

-Improved night visibility due to higher color rendering, higher color temperature and increased illuminance uniformity
-Significantly longer lifespan
-Lower energy consumption
-Reduced maintenance costs
-Instant-on with no run-up or re-strike delays
-No mercury, lead or other known disposable hazards
-Lower environmental footprint
-An opportunity to implement programmable controls (e.g. bi-level lighting)

With more than 535,000 customer-owned LS-2 street lights in PG&E’s service territory, a big difference can be made right here! Many steps have already been taken in this direction. On March 25, 2009, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Ed Harrington announced the deployment of 50 energy-efficient LED street lights in the city. See news coverage of this event.

It’s important, however, to select quality LED fixtures that will provide these benefits consistently over time. To assist customers, PG&E has developed stringent criteria for qualifying LED fixtures to participate in the rebate component of this program. Customers who install non-qualified LED fixtures will still be able to switch to the lower LS-2 LED rate schedule, but will not be eligible for the rebate.

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