The rebate, a result of Siemens participation in CenterPoint Energy’s Standard Offer Program, is a part of $12.3m Energy Savings Performance contract Siemens executed with the City of Houston’s traffic department to retrofit traffic signal bulbs with efficient light-emitting diode (LED) lamps.
Over the 10-year term of the contract, Siemens guarantees the amount of annual energy savings or pays the city for any shortfall.
Under the terms of the contract, Siemens provided turnkey design, engineering and construction services to help the City of Houston address infrastructure and energy efficiency improvements and to renew traffic and pedestrian signals at a majority of intersections within city limits.
Siemens has also implemented a phased lamp replacement program that covered some 1,400 intersections and more than 40,000 red, yellow and green traffic signals. Another 7,700 pedestrian signals are also retrofitted.
Signal housing unit heads are upgraded from 8 – inch to 12 –inch heads. According to the company’s estimation, the LED retrofits, completed in 2009, are guaranteed to save nearly 10 million KWh of electricity annually, or approximately $1.3m in equivalent dollar savings at prevailing utility rates.
Aside from generating utility savings and rebates, the project is also expected to create operational savings (projected at more than $5m over 10 years).
According to the City of Houston’s Traffic Department, the one-year bulb replacement cycle has now been extended to six years and as less frequent bulb changes mean fewer maintenance crew dispatches, all the costs associated with new lamps, deploying trucks and crews, operational savings are expected to come down.
