WICHITA, Kansas — This is a tale of two types of Kansas cities: those who had the foresight to own their own streetlights and those who do not.
Those who do have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars — even, they say, with the added maintenance. And they’ve been able to save more money by switching to LED bulbs. The energy-efficient lights cost more upfront, but pay for themselves over time, eventually leaving more money in city coffers.
The other cities’ streetlights are owned by Evergy, which charges the same flat monthly rates for LED bulbs as older less-efficient lights. In these situations, the cities say there is virtually no savings, neither in the short-or long-term.
City lights
In 2016, Prairie Village decided to buy its street lights from Kansas City Power and Light, now part of Evergy. Leasing the city’s 2,000 lights from KCP&L cost the small Johnson County community nearly $750,000 a year.
Prairie Village thought it could do better.
Its city council approved purchasing the lights at a cost of more than $2 million. It took on a seven-year bond to cover that cost, plus another $750,000 to upgrade all the lights to LEDs.
Prairie Village Public Works director Keith Bredehoeft said maintaining those lights has been more work than expected. But the city has no regrets.
“Once we made that change, our bills were less,” Bredehoeft said. “Period.”
The city now pays about $250,000 per year — a half-million less than it paid KCP&L.
Prairie Village likely would have saved money if it had bought the street lights without upgrading them. Nearby Mission Hills cut its streetlight expenses in half by doing that.
But LEDs use significantly less energy than traditional lights. Prairie Village halved its energy bill. Plus, the lights also need less upkeep, considering an LED light can last 25 times longer than traditional lights.
Overland Park, not far from Prairie Village, has been slowly swapping in LEDs after buying its streetlights in about 2013.
“It might be a little more initially for the LED fixture but it will save money over the long term,” said Brian Shield, Overland Park’s traffic engineer.
(Kansas News Service)
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