John Scarffe, Nederland.   The Nederland Board of Trustees considered a plan to convert streetlights to LED technology with Xcel Energy during a regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, at the Nederland Community Center. Xcel contacted the Town about replacing street lights with LED technology.

Representatives from Xcel Energy, the community’s electrical and gas service provider, contacted the Town earlier this year to introduce the company’s new program to convert street lighting to light-emitting diode (LED) technology. Town staff and elected officials had been talking with Xcel representatives for several years about Nederland’s goals to reduce energy use and light pollution.

“We first heard about the program about two years ago and asked the company to get in touch when it was finalized. LED is a directional lighting technology, emitting light in a certain area, versus incandescent (current) lighting, which emits light in all directions, creating glow, such as is often commented about at the Nederland Post Office.”

Town Administrator Alisha Reis told the Board, “We’ve been talking about this for a while.” The Town has 67 sodium, cobra head lights through Xcel, which is leading a large charge for more efficient LED.

Downward-cast, directional lighting is in line with the Town’s goal to preserve the night sky, according to background. No plan exists to reduce the number of street lights in the community, though to do so would further preserve night skies.

“Such discussion will likely be undertaken as the Town works to meet its Dark Sky Initiative goals. In the interim, LED lighting casts less light impacts than the current incandescent lighting.”

Xcel is offering two pathways to pay the costs to change out the lights -- either with Xcel paying the upfront costs and recapturing costs via monthly billing, or the community may elect to pay the costs of conversion and then no amount would be added to the Town’s monthly bills.

According to Xcel, the Town can expect to reduce monthly street lighting costs by 5 to 7 percent under the first option. The Town pays an average $675 per month for service to its street lights (or about $8,000 annually), depending on variant rates throughout the year.

Xcel estimates a savings of $584.04 per year, even with recapturing the costs of the LED conversion. After the initial conversion, all future Xcel-owned street lights will be installed with

LED technology.

In addition to financial savings and reduction of lighting glare, the LED lights are expected to save in monthly energy usage, according to Xcel. Most of the street lights in Nederland are 100-watt lamps, which will convert to 39 watts in the LED format, resulting in 27 watts savings per fixture and nearly 40 pounds fewer in carbon dioxide avoided per month.

The Board adopted a goal to preserve night skies via downcast, Dark Sky-compliant lighting as part of the 2013 Comprehensive Plan Update, according to background. It was further reinforced in 2015, with the adoption of the NedZero goals-monitoring program.

Additionally, the Board adopted a goal to achieve carbon neutrality in municipal operations, as noted in the 2012 Boulder County Environmental Sustainability Plan. LED high-efficiency lighting is a recognized strategy to assist in achieving this goal.

“This does meet many of our goals and moving to Dark Sky, but only if we are careful about adding new lights,” Reis said. “These lights are Dark Sky compliant and reduce glare. It’s a white, crisp look but doesn’t move in all directions like sodium lights. These can be directed.”

This proposal would only apply to Xcel owned fixtures. “We have our own lights and we can do what we want with those,” Reis said.

Trustee Kevin Mueller said the plan would reduce the cost of electricity about 70 percent, but the Town will get back six or seven percent. Other contractors can provide the same service for less. Reis said she could look into that. The Town has no hurry on this at all since Xcel just wants to hear back by the end of the year.

Trustee Charles Wood asked about the potential for some kind of problem through Dark Sky, and Reis replied that Dark Sky is in favor of anything that reduces light pollution. Mueller said he’d like to see the financial analysis of this.

In response to a question from Mayor Joe Gierlach about which lights the Town owns, Reis said they are mostly downtown. Xcel’s lights are on the highways and some downtown.

Trustee Topher Donahue said that it’s nice to know we have options, and Gierlach said they would be looking at similar costs for the lights the Town owns. Mueller said, “We can absolutely compete with Xcel on this. The price has come down considerably.

“It’s a new program for Xcel. To my standpoint we can get the same service at a cheaper price. He suggested going through all the lights and seeing which ones need to be done. If they look at all of their lights they could put together a bigger package and a better price.

“We can do the study and the conversions,” Mueller said, and Wood agreed. Donahue said they should wrap all the lights into one plan instead of just what Xcel has, and Reis says she will come back to the Board with more information.

The next meeting of the Nederland Board of Trustees will be on Tuesday, April 19, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Nederland Community Center.