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Placentia City Council
AGENDA REPORT
CITY COUNCIL
CITY ADMINISTRATOR
DEPUTY CITY ADMINISTRATOR / PUBLIC SERVICES & INFRASTRUCTURE JANUARY 23, 2024
SUBJECT: STUDY SESSION: MISSION BELL STREELIGHT LED CONVERSION PROJECT UPDATE
FISCAL
IMPACT: Depending on the option selected by the City Council, the cost to retrofit the City's Mission Bell streetlights to LED is anticipated to cost $490,565 and the cost to the City to replace the Mission Bell lights to the standard LED cobra head style light is $0.
SUMMARY:
As part of the adoption of the City's Five -Year Strategic Plan, City Council directed Staff to research the feasibility of replacing existing High Pressure Sodium Vapor (HPSV) streetlights in the City with the newer Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology. City Council also directed Staff to explore available funding opportunities to minimize the capital expenditures of LED replacement. On July 25, 2023, the City Council approved an agreement with Southern California Edison (SCE) to convert eligible streetlights to LED using SCE's LS -1 Option E program. On November 7, 2023, the City Council approved a color choice for residential and arterial streetlights. Since the City's decorative Mission Bell streetlights are not eligible for replacement under the Option E program Council directed Staff to explore available options for upgrading the Mission Bell lights to LED to maintain lighting uniformity throughout the City's streetlight system. The purpose of this study session is to provide the City Council with available options for it to consider and to seek final direction from the Council for converting the City's Mission Bell streetlights.
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council take the following actions:
1. Receive and file the Staff report and Presentation; and
2. Ask any questions of Staff; and
3. Review and discuss the available options and select a preferred option.
1.a.
Jan 23, 2024
City Council Agenda
January 23, 2024
STRATEGIC PLAN STATEMENT
This agenda item is consistent with the City Council approved 5 -Year Strategic Goal #5 to implement public infrastructure to meet community needs, under Objective #5.5, which is to transition all streetlights to LEDs.
DISCUSSION:
There are a total of 3,656 streetlights throughout the City installed along residential, collector, and arterial streets. 3,459 of those lights are owned by Southern California Edison (SCE) and the City pays SCE a monthly facilities fee for each pole in addition to the cost of the electricity and maintenance needed for the light. These types of streetlights are referred to as LS -1 lights and fall under SCE's LS -1 cost tariff (the remaining 193 fixtures are owned by the City). Out of the 3,459 LS - 1 streetlights, 537 are decorative Mission Bell style, which are located on all arterial streets of the City. The City's official streetlight per City Council Policy No. 620 is the Mission Bell (Attachment 2).
Currently, a High -Pressure Sodium (HPSV) fixture is used on both LS -1 and City -owned streetlights.
One of the goals of the City's Five -Year Strategic Plan is to convert all streetlights in the City to LED technology.
On July 25, 2023, the City Council approved an agreement with SCE to convert all eligible streetlights to LED using SCE's LS -1 Option E program. As part of the LS -1 Option E program, the City is eligible to convert 2,922 "cobra head style" SCE owned lights in Placentia to LED. The LS -1 lights with the decorative Mission Bell light fixture are not eligible for conversion under the SCE's current LS -1 Option E Program. On November 7, 2023, Staff held a Study Session with the City Council to seek direction from Council on the color options for streetlights prior to the City and SCE commencing the LED Conversion project. The City Council approved the 3000k color for all streetlights in the City and directed staff to explore replacement options to convert the Mission Bell streetlights to maintain lighting uniformity. Subsequently, Staff consulted with SCE regarding alternatives they can offer the City to upgrade the Mission Bell streetlight fixtures to LED.
SCE has offered the City the choice to upgrade both cobra head streetlights and decorative streetlights simultaneously as part of the LED Streetlight Conversion project:
Option 1: SCE will replace all the Mission Bell lights with standard cobra head fixtures at no upfront cost to the City. In this scenario, SCE would handle the removal of Mission Bell fixtures and installation of cobra head fixtures, with the LED upgrade included in the LED Streetlight Conversion project. Under this option, the current inventory of 537 decorative LS -1 lights will be incorporated into the Option E Program, along with the 2,922 streetlights currently eligible for the program. The estimated cost for replacing the Mission Bell fixtures with LED cobra head fixtures is $100,241.26.
This initial capital investment will be recovered by SCE through energy cost savings over a 20 -year repayment period under the Option E Program. This option will yield an additional annual electrical utility cost savings of $33,706 to the City, resulting in a cumulative total of $674,120 in additional savings over the 20 -year duration of the Option E Program.
City Council Agenda
January 23, 2024
Option 2: The decorative Mission Bell LS -1 lights are entered into the Option E program as if they were cobra head fixtures and the City pays a one time "differential payment" to SCE for the difference in cost between the cobra head and the decorative fixture (material cost only). For instance, if a typical 150 -watt cobra head fixture costs $210.71 and the 150 -watt Mission Bell replacement costs $1,100, the city pays a one-time differential payment of $889.29 (1,110 — 210.71 = 889.29) for each fixture included in the Option E program. Based on the City's streetlight system, the total one-time differential payment to replace all 537 Mission Bell streetlights is estimated to be $490,565.90.
Annually, the City is projected to realize an additional electrical utility savings of $33,706, resulting in an additional total savings of $674,120 over the 20 -year period of the Option E Program with the conversions of the decorative fixtures to LED.
Staff is seeking direction from the City Council regarding if it would prefer to replace the Mission Bell lights at no cost to the City or if it would prefer to maintain the Mission Bell streetlights and allocate approximately $500,000 in next year's capital improvement program budget to cover the project cost.
It should be noted that this option will require the City Council to commit to a capital expenditure prior to review of the FY 2024-25 Capital Improvement Program Budget as part of the City's annual budget process. Once Council has provided final policy direction on this issue SCE will formally add the Placentia LED conversion project to their work schedule. It is anticipated that the conversion project will begin late this Summer and take approximately 6-8 weeks to complete.
Prepared by:
Elsa Y. Robinson
Senior Management Analyst
Reviewed and approved:
Damien R—Arrula
City Administrator
Attachments:
1. PowerPoint Presentation
2. City Council Policy No. 620
Reviewed anq apo-r.ved:
Luis Estevez
Deputy City Administrator