Agenda Report
Fullerton City Council
MEETING DATE: JULY 5, 2022
TO: CITY COUNCIL / SUCCESSOR AGENCY
SUBMITTED BY: ERIC J. LEVITT, City Manager
PREPARED BY: MEG MCWADE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS
Bill roseberry, building and facilities and sewer division manager Matt lightner, ADMINISTRATIVE ANALYST II
SUBJECT: SOLAR STREETLIGHT RETROFIT PILOT PROJECT SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING AND AWARD
SUMMARY
Consideration contract award for Solar Streetlight Pilot Program materials and corresponding appropriation request to cover purchase cost for 23 solar streetlights from Gridshift Solutions.
RECOMMENDATION
Approve Solar Streetlight Pilot Program.
Waive formal bidding requirements and authorize City Manager, or designee, to issue a $69,221.44 purchase order for 23 solar streetlights from Gridshift Solutions to replace electric streetlights.
Approve $69,221.44 budget transfer and appropriation from the Gas Tax Fund (Fund 30) to the Building and Facility Maintenance Fund (Fund 69).
PRIORITY POLICY STATEMENT
This item matches the following Priority Policy Statement:
Infrastructure and City Assets.
FISCAL IMPACT
The equipment cost for the Solar Streetlight Pilot Program totals $69,221.44. Public Works Building and Facilities staff will install the equipment. This project is Gas Tax eligible and staff requests a $69,221.44 budget transfer and appropriation request from the Gas Tax Fund (Fund 30) to the Building and Facility Maintenance Internal Service Fund (Fund 69). The FY 2022-23 adopted budget does not include the pilot project. The purchase order request includes only the solar streetlights purchase as staff will perform the retrofit.
DISCUSSION
The pilot program will enable the City to determine if solar streetlights provide a viable option to replace some of the City’s high voltage series lighting system not impeded by tree canopy cover.
Fullerton Streetlight History and SCE
Fullerton has approximately 7,000 streetlights owned and operated by the City. Approximately 3,500 of these lights are high voltage series lighting, highlighted in red the following map:
Fullerton’s series streetlight systems designed and installed 50 to 70 years ago are now obsolete. The streetlight technology in place utilizes electrical transformers owned by Southern California Edison (SCE) and lighting circuits and fixtures owned by the City of Fullerton, all of which are outdated and the City can no longer reliably and cost-effectively operate and maintain.
Fullerton’s streetlight system relies on Regulated Output (RO) transformers which SCE deems difficult to repair or replace. In fact, SCE has indicated that the manufacturer of the transformers will no longer produce this equipment and no other produce these transformers due to the obsolescence of the series lighting systems. Additionally, the original design utilized mercury vapor (MV) lamps which are now banned due to environmental and safety concerns. In the 1980’s, Fullerton replaced lamps with high pressure sodium vapor (HPSV) lamps, which do not have the same electrical performance characteristics as MV lamps. The increased inrush current as streetlights turn on each night creates failure of SCE-owned RO transformers. Inrush current is the instant high input drawn when electrical equipment turns on. This older technology uses series circuit wiring between the lamp fixtures and the SCE transformer.
Staff anticipates the replacement costs for these systems to exceed $30 million. The streetlight outages in the present day culminate from decades of other capital investment needs and priorities taking precedence. However, with ongoing system failures, the City needs to focus on streetlight repairs or replacement. The attached Streetlight Presentation provided to the City’s Infrastructure and Natural Resources Advisory Committee on June 20, 2022 highlights some of this.
Series Lighting Explanation
A series lighting circuit uses a constant, variable voltage source to supply electricity to lights connected to the circuit in a loop. A series lighting circuit has three components: constant current regulator, isolation transformer and series circuit wiring.
The constant current regulator supplies electricity to the series circuit. The isolation transformer connects the lights in a series circuit and regulates the electric current between lights. Series circuit wiring uses a single wire loop to connect the power source to the lights one-by-one and wraps around to return to the power source.
Series lighting has only one flow of electricity. The current will enter the first light with a positive charge and leave with a negative charge that the transformer will convert to positive for the next light in a series. The electric current flows in one direction on the series until it supplies all lights with energy. If one connection on this path breaks, then the circuit breaks as well.
Essentially, series lighting in the City of Fullerton’s streetlights operates like old Christmas tree lights. If a single light (connection) anywhere in the series goes out, then the rest of the lights in the series typically will not function.
Outages and Pilot Program:
Streetlight outages have become prevalent over the past few years as the availability of existing outdated equipment has decreased. City staff has and will continue to do everything in their power to mitigate the outages and work to repair any streetlights that falter. The most recent issues have affected whole neighborhoods attached to a single transformer owned and operated by SCE. Staff contacts SCE daily to fix or replace malfunctioning transformers. The City and SCE work diligently together to reactivate the systems but the outages often occur for months at a time.
The Evergreen Circuit’s transformer has not operated since May 5, 2022, while the City waits on SCE to repair the transformer powering the circuit. The Evergreen Circuit has 99 streetlights. The Solar Streetlight Pilot Program will replace 23 streetlights on this circuit. The transformer will power 76 lights on this circuit once SCE has completed transformer repairs. The 99 lights on the circuit will become active once SCE receives and installs the transformer and the City has implemented the solar light pilot program, with examples of the lights included as an attachment. SCE has ordered the equipment to complete the Evergreen Circuit repair but has not provided a repair timeline. The pilot program will replace 23 streetlights as shown on the following map of the Evergreen circuit:
Bidding Process
The City originally conducted an informal bid for this project as staff estimated costs would come in under the $50,000 formal bid threshold. Staff solicited and received three written bids for this project through the informal bid process. The following lists the bidders and bid totals:
Gridshift Solutions $69,221.44
Twelve Fifty-Four Industries $76,904.01
Reinders Manufacturing $83,888.76.
The low bid cost totaled higher than expected due to overall material cost increases and supply chain issues. The recommended $69,221.44 contract amount falls within the authorized dollar limits for the City Manager to award, however, the bid process followed the informal process requiring three written bids for contracts under $50,000 rather than a formal request for proposal. The City used this bid process in good faith, based on the initial expected project cost. Staff does not anticipate that formally re-bidding this work will result in a lower cost, given the steadily increasing material costs and material acquisition delays. Additionally, this neighborhood has no streetlights which would continue during the bidding process. As a result, staff requests City Council waive the formal bidding requirement and award the contract to Gridshift Solutions.
Next Steps
Based on results of the pilot program, staff will evaluate other areas that may have success with solar streetlights. Staff will continue work to mitigate the outages and repair faltering streetlights, assess other replacement options and evaluate potential financing of a larger scale replacement of system components.
Attachments:
Attachment 1 – Gridshift Solutions Quote
Attachment 2 – Evergreen Solar Pilot Program Area
Attachment 3 – Evergreen Streetlight Outage Area
Attachment 4 – Streetlight Status INRAC presentation June 20, 2022 Attachment 5 – Fullerton Streetlight Examples
Fullerton Solar Streetlight Retrofit Pilot Project Supplemental Funding and Award July 5, 2022 - Page 2