Planning-level financial screening
LED street lighting conversion
Summary
Converting 578 street lighting fixtures to LED returns more than its cost over the fixture life only toward the favorable end of the planning range. Discounted lifetime value is -$108,000 to $447,000 against a one-time conversion cost of $144,000 to $376,000.
Savings of $22,000 to $50,000 per year give a simple payback of 2.9 to 16.8 years. Unlike a recurring program, the cost here is paid once and the savings continue, so payback is the right measure and it is reported alongside discounted lifetime value.
The conversion breaks even at an installed cost of $743 per fixture, so a single quoted price per fixture settles the decision. The result is most sensitive to installed cost per fixture.
What the government reported
| Fixture class | Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential cobrahead | Fixtures | 410 | [1] |
| Residential cobrahead | Existing fixture wattage | 100 W | [1] |
| Residential cobrahead | LED fixture wattage | 35 to 55 W | [1][2] Existing wattage times the published LED wattage share |
| Collector cobrahead | Fixtures | 130 | [1] |
| Collector cobrahead | Existing fixture wattage | 250 W | [1] |
| Collector cobrahead | LED fixture wattage | 88 to 138 W | [1][2] Existing wattage times the published LED wattage share |
| Arterial and intersection | Fixtures | 38 | [1] |
| Arterial and intersection | Existing fixture wattage | 400 W | [1] |
| Arterial and intersection | LED fixture wattage | 140 to 220 W | [1][2] Existing wattage times the published LED wattage share |
Prices and published cost factors
| Item | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity price | $0.117 per kWh | [3] |
| Hours a street light operates per year | 3,900 to 4,300 hours | [4] |
| LED replacement wattage as a share of the existing fixture wattage | 35% to 55% | [2] |
| LED fixture cost including installation | $250 to $650 per fixture | [5] |
| Maintenance now, per fixture | $12 to $35 | [6] |
| Maintenance after, per fixture | $2 to $8 | [7] |
| Service life used for the lifetime comparison | 15 years | [8] |
| Real discount rate for lifetime cost comparison | 3.0% | [9] |
What comparable programs achieved
Reference cases are published conversions. Each shows who paid for the work and whether a vendor published or supplied it.
| Reference case | Result | Funding and vendor role | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Town of Shelburne (MA) | Town-owned dimmable LEDs cut the annual streetlight bill from $15,080 to $3,930 across 99 fixtures, a saving of $11,150 a year. Most of it came from maintenance rather than energy: the utility's rental and maintenance charge fell from $9,321 to $2,376 while electricity fell from $5,759 to $1,554. | Town of Shelburne; vendor role: no (prepared by the town's own energy committee; two lighting contractors named only as options) | [10] |
| Massachusetts Rapid LED Streetlight Conversion Program (77 cities and towns) (MA) | Seventy-seven cities and towns received more than $5.5 million in state grants toward 116,139 LED streetlights, projected to cut electricity use by more than 35.1 million kilowatt hours and municipal costs by more than $5.4 million a year. | Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources; vendor role: no (state program administered by a regional planning agency) | [11] |
| Maryland and Virginia municipal streetlight assessments (Maryland Energy Administration program) (MD) | Assessments for participating local governments covered 87,352 lights with an estimated $3.9 million a year in bill savings against $16.8 million in conversion cost, a payback of about 4.3 years (5.3 in Maryland, 3.9 in Virginia). The report warns that current utility estimates in one Maryland territory run $1,600 to $2,500 a light, which stretches payback to about ten years. | U.S. Department of Energy grant to the Maryland Energy Administration; vendor role: no (prepared by a consultant to the state energy office) | [12] |
Energy, maintenance, and lifetime value
| Item | Planning range | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity used now | 381,410 kWh | [1][4] Fixtures times wattage times hours per year |
| Electricity saved per year | 171,634 to 260,334 kWh | [1][2][4] Electricity used now less electricity used after conversion |
| Energy cost saved per year | $20,000 to $30,000 | [1][2][3][4] Electricity saved times the electricity price |
| Maintenance cost saved per year | $2,300 to $19,000 | [1][6][7] Fixtures times the difference in maintenance cost |
| Total saved per year | $22,000 to $50,000 | [1][2][3][4][6][7] Energy saved plus maintenance saved |
| One-time conversion cost | $144,000 to $376,000 | [1][5] Fixtures times installed cost per fixture |
| Simple payback | 2.9 to 16.8 years | [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] One-time conversion cost divided by total saved per year |
| Lifetime value, discounted | -$108,000 to $447,000 | [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Savings over the fixture life discounted to present value, less the one-time conversion cost |
Grant and utility incentive programs are not counted. Pole replacement, knockdowns, and any network control layer are outside this comparison and are priced separately.
What has to be true for the conversion to break even
The figure below is the installed cost per fixture at which discounted savings equal the conversion cost, holding everything else at the middle of its planning range. A quoted price settles it directly.
| Measure | Break-even value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Break-even installed cost per fixture | $743 per fixture | [1][2][3][4][6][7][8][9] Installed cost per fixture at which discounted savings equal the conversion cost |
What would change the answer
| If this is true | Lifetime value becomes | How to check |
|---|---|---|
| Base case | -$108,000 to $447,000 | Reported figures and planning ranges above |
| Billed hours are lower than the planning range | -$132,000 to $411,000 | Read the billed hours from the utility's street lighting tariff |
| Electricity prices fall by a tenth | -$132,000 to $411,000 | Check the tariff's energy charge and any scheduled rate change |
| Installed cost runs a third above the planning range | -$232,000 to $399,000 | Obtain a cooperative contract quote covering mounting and disposal |
| Existing maintenance costs are half the planning range | -$122,000 to $333,000 | Pull the last two years of street lighting maintenance charges |
Data checks
No LED fixture wattage was supplied, so the screening applies a published wattage share to the existing fixtures. A quoted fixture schedule narrows this range more than any other single record.
What this screening does not cover
This is a financial screening, not an engineering evaluation or a lighting design. It does not set light levels, spacing, pole loading, or electrical service, and it does not assess whether a given fixture meets the roadway classification. Lighting design and specification are performed by the government's engineer of record or a licensed electrician, and site-specific evaluation precedes any purchase.
Figures are planning-level. They support a decision on whether to seek quotes, not a contract award.
Method
Electricity used is fixtures times fixture wattage times billed hours per year, valued at the electricity price. Savings are the reduction in electricity plus the reduction in maintenance cost per fixture. The one-time conversion cost is fixtures times installed cost. Lifetime value discounts annual savings over the fixture life and subtracts the conversion cost.
The favorable end of each range pairs the largest wattage reduction with the lowest installed cost; the unfavorable end reverses them. Ranges reflect published figures and planning parameters, not statistical confidence intervals. Each planning parameter lists its basis and confidence in the sources.
Sources
- Town of Example. 2026 street lighting inventory by fixture type and wattage (fictional). 2026. Fictional record created for this sample.
- U.S. Department of Energy. Solid-State Lighting program reporting on municipal street lighting conversions: LED replacements typically draw 45 to 65 percent less than the high-pressure sodium fixtures they replace. 2023. https://www.energy.gov/eere/ssl/solid-state-lighting. Confidence medium; funded by U.S. DOE
- U.S. EIA. Electric Power Annual table 2.10: average commercial retail price, CO. 2024. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/xls/epa_02_10.xlsx. Energy charges only; demand charges vary by tariff
- LeMay Civic Advisory. Planning range: dusk-to-dawn operation, about eleven hours per night. 2026-09-15. Confidence medium
- LeMay Civic Advisory. Planning range pending a cooperative contract or contractor quote. 2026-09-15. Confidence low
- LeMay Civic Advisory. Planning range covering lamp replacement labor and materials on a group relamp cycle. 2026-09-15. Confidence low
- LeMay Civic Advisory. Planning range covering driver and surge failures within the fixture life. 2026-09-15. Confidence low
- U.S. Department of Energy. Solid-State Lighting program: LED street lighting products rated in the range of 50,000 to 100,000 hours. 2023. https://www.energy.gov/eere/ssl/solid-state-lighting. Confidence medium; funded by U.S. DOE
- LeMay Civic Advisory. Planning assumption; replace with the government's adopted rate. 2026-09-15. Confidence medium
- Shelburne Energy Committee, Town of Shelburne, Massachusetts. Final Report: Recommendation for Streetlight Conversion to LEDs. 2023-08-01. https://townofshelburnema.gov/files/SEC_Final_LED_Report_to_Selectboard.pdf. Funded by Town of Shelburne; vendor involvement: no (prepared by the town's own energy committee; two lighting contractors named only as options); confidence high
- Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Statewide LED Streetlight Program Cuts Annual Municipal GHG Emissions by Over 10,000 Metric Tons. 2021-04-22. https://www.mapc.org/news/statewide-led-streetlight-program-cuts-annual-municipal-ghg-emissions-by-over-10000-metric-tons/. Funded by Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources; vendor involvement: no (state program administered by a regional planning agency); confidence medium
- Maryland Energy Administration. LED Streetlight Conversions in Maryland and Virginia: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies in 2020. 2020-09-29. https://news.maryland.gov/mea/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2020/10/FINAL-LED-Streetlights-in-Maryland-20200929.pdf. Funded by U.S. Department of Energy grant to the Maryland Energy Administration; vendor involvement: no (prepared by a consultant to the state energy office); confidence high