Challenge

The City of St. Cloud is committed to reducing energy use and maintenance costs of the street light and traffic signal system. In addition the City was faced with several areas of aging infrastructure supporting the street light system, including failed under ground wiring, and aging electric services.

Our Solution

The City partnered with Apex to develop options for energy conservation, maintenance savings, and addressed infrastructure issues. The collaborative effort between the City, Apex, and the electrical contractor resulted in the retrofit of existing street lights and traffic signals city wide.

• Street lights were converted to LED City wide with several areas receiving increased lighting levels while still reducing the energy costs. Several unmetered lighting services were converted to metered, and 36 new or replacement services were installed. All traffic signals were also converted to LED technology.

• A new smart technology was installed and a facelift was given to the central business district. The new Intellistreets technology included several interactive banners, a new programmable sound system with real time announcement capability, infrastructure for future cameras, and independent lighting control. The aesthetically pleasing upgrade also increases safety and security.

• The City’s parking ramps were retrofitted with new LED lighting and lighting controls. The upgrade reduced energy use from the parking ramp lighting by more than 50% and improved lighting. These improvements made security cameras more efficient and provided the public a much brighter view of the ramps.

• Parks facilities were retrofit with new LED lighting including some of the City trails resulting in significant energy savings and improved lighting and security at these locations.

• The St. Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex (MAC) was retrofit with new LED lighting over both of the facilities ice sheets. The lighting was designed to increase light levels for events to 80 foot-candles and have the ability to drop to 40 foot-candles for practices. The lighting significantly improved the look of the ice sheet and visibility for the skaters while reducing energy use by over 50%.

• The River's Edge Convention Center and Airport received LED replacement fixtures in several locations where significant energy savings were realized and aesthetics were improved by the lighting upgrades.

Final Result

Also included in the project were interior lighting of several facilities. The savings resulting from the new LED lighting technology was leveraged to allowed the City to also make the infrastructure improvements as part of the project. Additional benefits achieved in the project included; increasing lighting in several issue areas resulting in improved safety to the community, and installation of a high tech upgrade using a smart technology bringing both sound and digital displays to the City’s central business district.

PROJECT NUMBERS:

• Total Cash Savings:  $4.6 Million over 20 Years

• Utility & O&M Savings: $502,500/Yr.

• Infrastructure Work Paid for by Savings: $1.6 Million