Fans cheer during a Tigers playoff game at Co-op Place in March. Co-op Place is among 12 city facilities to retrofitted with new LED lighting as part of a strategy to lower operational costs for City Hall.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
The City of Medicine Hat has completed LED retrofits at 12 local facilities as part of an ongoing provincial initiative.
The city, in partnership with the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre’s Community Energy Conservation program, funded by the Government of Alberta, retrofitted the lighting at 12 facilities in an effort to find operation cost savings and efficiencies.
The grant program provided the city with $430,000 toward the completed project, with upgrades using LED technology to “replace less efficient, aged infrastructure such as metal halide, high pressure sodium and fluorescent lights.”
City staff reviewed the age, condition and rating of existing light fixtures with a focus on those with the highest energy consumption, and also fixtures nearing the end of a “useful life.”
The 12 facilities upgraded are:
– 364 Kipling Street,
– Medicine Hat Regional Airport,
– Big Marble Go Centre,
– City hall,
– Co-op Place,
– Environmental Utilities Brier Park,
– Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre,
– Fleet/Transit,
– Kinplex,
– Kiwanis Centre,
– Medicine Hat Police Service and
– Solid Waste,16th Street SW.
The total project saw 2,537 lights replaced and 883 fluorescent tubes updated to LED retrofit bulbs. Those new fixtures, according to the city, use on average between 30 and 50 per cent less power, reducing electrical consumption and greenhouse has emissions.
In a release Monday, the city used Co-op Place’s updates as an example of the electrical consumption saved via the initiative. Staff replaced lamps that used 320 watts with brighter lamps that only use 85 watts.
“We are grateful to the MCCAC for their support towards energy improvements at our municipality. With their help, we’re reducing our impact on the environment and seeing meaningful cost savings at the same time,” said Kevin Schaaf, superintendent of facilities project management.
According to the MCCAC’s lighting calculator, the project will reduce lifetime greenhouse gases by an estimated 3,662 tonnes and save $97,960.98 in utility costs annually.
“Medicine Hat’s comprehensive lighting retrofit activities demonstrate how bundling energy efficiency upgrades can have a positive impact. We’re pleased and impressed with how the City leveraged the Community Energy Conservation program” said Trina Innes, executive director of the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre.
