The long-delayed street light replacement now looks much brighter, the city says

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City officials say the number of burned-out streetlights and months-long waiting times to replace them have been dramatically reduced.

When contractor Iconic Power Systems took over streetlight maintenance from city-owned ENMAX in late 2022, they faced a backlog of 5,000 fixtures in need of repair and a wait time for completed work that was four times longer than expected, according to a city audit committee. I heard on Thursday.

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“Actual response times exceeded contractual (expectations) by 400 percent, and penalties were not met due to oversight and reporting difficulties,” the administration's report said, referring to an audit last year.

“For example, the actual average time to repair due to pedestrians (many street lights were out) was 77 days compared to the service level.
The 14-day deal is 450 percent more than the deal.”

Supply chain problems and inconsistencies between contract and performance monitoring, including tracking the effectiveness of response times, contributed to the backlog, the committee said.

This has a potential impact on the safety of pedestrians and motorists, one city councilor said he has heard from disgruntled constituents.

“I'm surprised by the delays,” Ward 8 said. Courtney Walcott. “We were the first port of call in the storm and a lot of questions came into my office.”

But addressing supply chain issues and additional crews helped turn the tide and turn those lights on more quickly, city mobility operations officials said. That reduced the number of lights needing replacement from 5,000 to 500, a number expected to hold, officials said.

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“The good news is we're moving in the right direction,” Ward 12 said. Evan Spencer.

The city's 105,288 streetlight repairs are prioritized in part based on outage length, traffic volume and sometimes seasonal conditions, said Michael Gray, the city's streetlight design supervisor. “On Halloween, we tend to target residential areas because of the tricks,” he said.

City Auditor Liz Ormsby said, “Not all street breaks are the same. There is a marked difference between the break in the quiet cul-de-sac and their line-up along the Crowchild Trail.'

The report recommends prioritizing repairs and improving management monitoring to better meet a “customer-centric approach.”

Speeding up repairs in emergency situations is another area for improvement, administrators said.

The city receives 700 to 800 street light repair orders per month.

Street lights account for about 12 percent of the city of Calgary's electricity use, which has become significantly more efficient since switching from older high-pressure sodium lights to LEDs that began in 2014, city officials say. They say the retrofit will save about $5 million annually by reducing energy consumption by up to 50 percent and maintenance costs by 25 percent.

Calgarians can report burned-out streetlights by going to calgary.ca/streetlights

[email protected]

X (Twitter): @BillKaufmannjrn

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