The City of Pittsburgh seems ready to choose Pittsburgh-based lighting company The Efficiency Network (TEN) as the contractor for the $16 million LED street light conversion project.

"This is a huge contract," Pittsburgh Chief Operating Officer Kinsey Casey said when he first announced the winning bidder. "It will change the face of this city in the coming decades."

According to the contract, TEN will replace the city's existing 35,000 street lights with LED lamps. The city will also add 15,000 new street lights to communities where less than 85% of the area is illuminated by street lights. These areas were identified through a comprehensive survey completed by Cyclomedia earlier this year, resulting in a complete map of all street lights in Pittsburgh. The 15,000 new lights were paid for by the US$12 million federal stimulus fund provided by the U.S. Rescue Program.

All new lighting will meet the requirements of Pittsburgh's new dark sky lighting regulations promulgated in September. The decree has attracted national attention because Pittsburgh is the first major city to adopt the latest guidelines of the International Dark Sky Association, which aim to reduce light pollution that negatively affects wildlife habitat, bird migration, and human health.

Not everyone is fascinated by the new arrangement. During the city council’s discussion on the transaction on November 1st, Councilman Deb Gross raised a series of concerns, ranging from technical concerns about LED bulbs to the fact that TEN and Duquesne Light are owned by the same parent company, the city must negotiate with them. Public utility contracts.

Currently, regardless of actual energy consumption, the city will pay utility providers a flat rate for each street light. Although the renovation project is expected to save the city $1 million in utility costs each year, realizing these savings will require renegotiating the deal-TEN will participate in this process.

"Aren't we just letting Ducanwright talk to Ducanwright?" Gross asked. "How does this benefit taxpayers?"

Angela Martinez, who has been overseeing the project for the city’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, said these entities remain independent and regulations prohibit collusion between them. DoMI director Kim Lucas said that almost all other qualified project bidders also "have relationships with the people we will discuss with." She said the city government will ensure that the negotiation conditions are favorable.

The efficiency network became the subject of controversy in 2015, when former TEN executive Patrick Reagan and Allentown Mayor Ed Pavlovsky conspired to sign a new LED street light worth $3 million for his company Contract in exchange for a campaign donation to the mayor. But the company had different ownership at that time. A spokesperson for the city could not say that she commented on the discussions about the suppliers bidding for the project, but said that “all bidding opportunities are considered by expert teams from multiple departments who review the suppliers and their submissions. Materials to choose the best products for taxpayers, the environment and our communities."

The city issued a request for proposals in May and announced the selection of 10 people. Casey said that with multiple bids, the contractor went through a complete urban interview and scoring process. Officials stated that a significant element of the TEN proposal is its plan to provide workforce development opportunities through cooperation with the Pittsburgh chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. In addition, TEN plans to create new apprenticeship pipelines through the Pittsburgh Public Schools' vocational and technical education program.

Casey said TEN was selected for several reasons, including the workforce development part of their proposal, their ability to comply with the city’s required schedule, and the fact that TEN is a local company that has worked with Harrisburg and other communities in Pennsylvania. .

In any case, Gross’s colleagues in parliament hardly expressed concerns about the contract: in Monday’s preliminary vote, she was the only one “opposed”.

Casey said the city is working on a proactive timetable to use the energy saved as quickly as possible while taking advantage of the savings in maintenance.

Casey said that the old lamp "broken a lot." "LEDs have a much longer lifespan."

Casey said that Pittsburgh’s street lights consume approximately 25 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year—more than half of the electricity used for all city operations.

Almost all existing street lights in Pittsburgh are high-pressure sodium "cobra heads", named after the shape of the poles. The poles arch like a cobra with a hood and cast light onto the street. Casey said that the energy efficiency of LEDs is 70% higher than that of high-pressure sodium lamps.

Martinez and Lucas told the city council that TEN had stated that it would take about 10 months to actually replace the lights. But they also stated that there will be an active community engagement process as part of the effort to determine which communities should be prioritized.

Part of this work will include a demonstration project for the public, so residents can see the appearance of the new LED street lights later this year. Updates on community participation opportunities will be shared on the City’s Engage PGH page.

Casey said that infrastructure projects of this scale always face challenges-including obtaining sufficient skilled labor and the hilly terrain of Pittsburgh. "Some street lights are out of reach with bucket trucks," Casey said.

All in all, she said: "We hope to do this in two to three years, and a lot of bulbs will be replaced in two to three years."

Chris Porter contributed to this report.

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