Municipality looks to replace old lighting system

A number of different styles and colours of street lights have adorned Turret Street and Maligne Avenue near Centennial Park in Jasper, as part of a trial project to determine the best option for replacing Jasper’s aging street light population.

Some of the new acorn-style lights lining the streets have been fitted with LED (light-emitting-diode) light inserts to test the manufacturer’s claims regarding energy consumption and maintenance. 

Most of the lights in town use traditional high pressure sodium bulbs, but LEDs are supposed to last five times longer and draw a third less energy, said director of Environmental Services Ken Quackenbush. 

The technology is changing fast, said Quackenbush, so that’s something to consider when making wholesale changes to the current lighting system. Additionally, people don’t generally care for the stark white light in the residential areas, he said, but that it helps with “proper colour rendition,” which may be important in downtown areas, especially if public cameras are ever installed. 

Quackenbush said he believes that this is a “really positive” project and that Jasper has the “opportunity to lead the way in energy efficient street lighting.”

However, if the LED lights do perform up to the standards the manufacturer claims, the project will face some obstacles. “One of the biggest hurdles we have is that we need to negotiate a new agreement with ATCO because right now ATCO owns all of our lights in town and we pay an investment rate,” said Quackenbush. “What it means is they do all the maintenance on those fixtures and ultimately replace them,” he said. 

The bigger savings in terms of dollars is on the maintenance side of things and not on the power consumption side, said Quackenbush. “If the new LED light takes five times less maintenance, we should see a proportional reduction in maintenance costs,” he said. “And if they don’t give us that reduction, there’s not much payback in doing this.”