LED projects receive funding assistance

Grant recipients will see significant annual savings after upgrades

Four Heartland customers will have more efficient lighting in 2018 with help from Heartland’s Power Forward program. The cities of Madison, Arlington, and Aurora, SD as well as Truman Public Utilities in Minnesota recently received energy efficiency grants to assist with street and public facility lighting upgrades.

Heartland offers grants to customer utilities to perform energy efficiency improvements at city facilities. Eligible projects include those that optimize electric energy use, such as installing energy efficient lighting.

“Upgrading to more efficient lighting can provide significant savings to a municipality,” said Heartland Communications Manager Ann Hyland. “The more efficient use of electricity frees up funds for other important city projects.”

Heartland awards a limited number of grants to customer utilities each year with funding distributed on a first come, first served basis.

“Heartland is happy to help our customers with these important projects,” said Hyland. “Our requirements are pretty simple – the city or utility must provide a cost share and we must be able to verify the project will provide savings. We do have limited funds available for grants so we suggest customers thinking about implementing energy efficiency improvements this year apply sooner rather than later.”

Madison, SD

The city of Madison earned a $2,500 energy efficiency grant to switch incandescent lights to LEDs in concession stands and bathrooms at area parks. The city is also installing motion sensors to ensure lights are not left on when the buildings are not in use. The upgrade will save the city approximately $770 or 6,115 kilowatt hours annually.

Arlington, SD

Arlington is continuing to upgrade street lights throughout the city. In 2018, the city will replace 22 high pressure sodium street lights with 63-watt LED lights. With an average annual energy savings of over 24,000 kWh and annual dollar savings of over $2,400, the new lighting will pay for itself in savings in just over four years.

Truman, MN

Truman Public Utilities is also moving forward with another phase of street lighting upgrades. The city is replacing 65 street lights in 2018, switching from 250 and 150 watt HPS bulbs to 74 and 138 watt LEDs. The city will see an average annual energy savings of over 34,000 kWh, or $3,400 annually.

Aurora, SD

The upgrade of eight Main Street lights is the final phase of a project in Aurora, making all the street lights in town LED. The city is replacing 250 watt HPS lights with 135 watt LED, resulting in savings of approximately 7,637 kWH and $760 annually.