City Celebrates Smart Lighting Program Completion, Saving Millions Of Dollars In Electricity

CHICAGO (CBS) — Brighter lights and lower bills. The City of Chicago is celebrating the completion of the smart lighting program.

It’s replaced 280,000 high-pressure sodium lights with new LED lights that use less energy and can alert crews if they go out.

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“Each streetlight will now be equipped with a wireless node control that can detect when a streetlight has gone out to automatically create a repair ticket and assign crews to respond. That is a huge step forward,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

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The more efficient lights have already cut the city’s electricity bill in half — saving more than $8 million last year. The city also got $34 million in rebates from ComEd for switching the lights.

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More than half of the lights were assembled by Chicago residents at the Lyon’s View manufacturing plant.