TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Tony Olmos, Public Works Director
Keith Darling, Interim Maintenance Superintendent
SUBJECT:Title
Appropriate Funds in the Amount of $10,000 and Authorize City Manager to Submit Payment in Same Amount to Southern California Edison (SCE) for Preparation of a Street Light Valuation
APPROVE
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council appropriate funds in the amount of $10,000 and authorize the City Manager to submit payment in the same amount to Southern California Edison for preparation of a street light valuation for street lights currently owned, operated, and maintained by SCE.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are available funds in the Capital Improvement Fund to fund this effort.
BACKGROUND:
Most of the street lights within the City are owned and maintained by SCE. The City pays SCE for the operation and maintenance of the street lights, including electricity, at an approximate monthly cost of $25,000. Given the high cost of electricity, many local agencies have requested for SCE to convert the existing lamps to LEDs to save on energy cost. SCE has denied these requests citing high cost of lamp retrofits. However, as an option, SCE has had a policy in place that allows for the local agencies to purchase the lights from SCE, which would then allow the local agency to own and operate the street lights as they see fit. The first step is for the local agency to pay SCE a fee of $10,000 to assess the value of the street lights within the City limits. City would then use the valuation and make decisions regarding the possible purchase of the lights. Given the recent popularity of the program, SCE has set a deadline of August 15, 2015 by which the local agencies must request for the valuation of the streets lights and participate in the program.
City Council discussed this topic at its June 23, 2015 Study Session. At the meeting, City Council directed staff to bring this item to the July 7, 2015 meeting for consideration.
DISCUSSION:
The SCE street light valuation is the first mandatory step in the process for the City to purchase the SCE owned and maintained street lights. Once the valuation has been completed by SCE, staff would then prepare a feasibility study, which would analyze several energy saving and revenue generating options including, but not limited to:
• Cost to replace current luminaires with energy efficient LED luminaires with energy saving statistics,
• Cost of unit prices of electricity costs versus metered electricity costs,
• Possibility of generating revenue by leasing out pole space for wireless connectivity, and
• Possibility of generating revenue by leasing out pole space for low profile cell booster antennas.
These exciting opportunities are expected to help offset the cost of purchasing the street lights and may even provide a cash positive scenario.
CONCLUSION:
Therefore, staff recommends that the City Council appropriate funds in the amount of $10,000 and authorize City Manager to submit payment in same amount to Southern California Edison for the preparation of a street light valuation for street lights currently owned, operated, and maintained by SCE.
ATTACHMENTS:
None