A new light will soon be shed on Satellite Beach. Lots of them, in fact.
Florida Power & Light is upgrading all of the city’s 372 streetlights to state-of-the-art LED technology to save money on electricity.
LED (Light Emitting Diode) streetlights provided by FPL have a whiter, brighter and more consistent light, do not use mercury, and offer cost savings of approximately 60 percent over older lights.
The change, to be completed in phases of about 100 streetlights at a time over the next six months, will reduce the city’s current monthly electricity costs for street lighting from $3,044 to $2,961, a monthly reduction of just under $100.
There is no cost to the city for the removal of the old lights or the installation of the new LED models. The new lights will provide a similar level of lighting compared to the current lights, said Assistant City Manager Suzanne Sherman. They will be adjusted to provide the appropriate amount of light at each location.
The FPL project approved June 6 covers all streetlights in Satellite Beach except those on South Patrick Drive and State Road A1A, which have to be dealt with through a different process, Sherman said.
FPL delivers electricity to approximately 700,000 streetlights in Florida and provides maintenance to about 500,000 of them through separate agreements.