Calgary streets should be getting brighter following the signing of a new service contract.
The City of Calgary announced Thursday a change of companies providing maintenance to street lamps.
Iconic Power Systems took over the contract from Enmax for 104,000 luminaires around the city and has been working with the city-owned subsidiary since November on the transition.
On Wednesday, the city told Global News as many as 1,100 streetlights are out across the city. Officials said supply chain snags led to the backlog to replace the lamps.
A Thursday news release said citizens can expect to see improvements to street light maintenance by mid-2023.
“As with many things, the pandemic has had an effect on our ability to perform repairs to our streetlights, which resulted in a slight increase in response times to street light outages in 2022,” Ravi Seera, manager of mobility operations, said in a statement.
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“Thankfully our supply issues have been resolved, and we believe the change in service provider will reduce the response time by the middle of 2023.”
The contract change comes five years after the city upgraded about 84,000 street lights to LED luminaires, which are fully-assembled lighting units at the top of a pole that includes a board of LED lights.
Seera said the city has experienced $5 million in annual savings since.
“This cost savings is expected to continue over the next five years, and payback for the project is expected to occur between 5.5 and 9.5 years after the project was completed.”
The city also said the LED luminaires reduce energy consumption by 50 per cent and maintenance costs have dropped by 25 per cent with the reduction in costs for LEDs.
Burnt-out street lights can be reported via the online outage tool or by calling 311.
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