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Most of the City’s streetlights are High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights, which is an outdated technology. LED streetlights are now the industry standard because they reduce energy and maintenance costs, improve lighting performance, and are more controllable.

The project will enhance quality of life for all Philadelphians by providing better, more reliable lighting. Streetlights will go out less frequently because LEDs are longer-lasting and the Streets Department will know immediately when a light is out via the lighting management system instead of relying on 311 calls to report outages.

The whiter, crisper, LED lights will improve traffic safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists by improving their ability to see at night. Compared to HPS lights, LED lights make it easier to see the contrast between an object and its surroundings, making it easier to quickly and more accurately identify people, vehicles, road, debris or other things on the street or sidewalk. LED lights also enhance peripheral vision and improve the quality of video resolution.

This two-year citywide one-to-one lighting replacement project includes all City-owned and -managed streetlights. This includes all cobraheads (roadway), alleyway, and decorative (residential and commercial corridor) lighting.

All newly-converted and previously-installed LED streetlights (just over 20,000 fixtures) will be connected to a lighting management system, allowing the City to manage and operate streetlights remotely.

To help communities know when and where our crews will be replacing and connecting streetlights, please see our installation map that shows where they’ve been and where they’re going over the next two weeks.

This map is a tool for community members to stay up-to-date on the project’s progress and to increase awareness around when crews will be working on area streets, alleys, and driveways.

The project will prioritize LED installation in neighborhoods where public safety needs are highest, as identified through nighttime crime data, nighttime vehicle crash data, 57 Blocks Initiative data, and Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Indicators of Potential Disadvantage.

Priority installation areas (see: Why are some neighborhoods getting new lights faster than others?) will receive “boosted” light levels, meaning that they will have higher lumen output than the standard. All lights - standard or boosted - will have the same warm color temperature. This balanced design reflects a data-driven approach and the community feedback received from the trial installations.

The City has already completed some LED streetlight conversions on either a neighborhood level or as HPS fixtures have failed, requiring a one-to-one or block-wide replacement. All existing LEDs will be connected to the lighting management system (LMS) and will be dimmed to the appropriate level in accordance with the project’s design specifications.

Existing LED fixtures are not currently dimmed, as they are not connected to a networked LMS.

The project has made a few key decisions to ensure a high level of what's called “visual comfort” in how folks are perceiving the new lights.

All lights on the project are a warm color temperature - 3000 Kelvin - and many of the fixtures have an additional comfort feature - diffused optics - to help reduce the brightness of the LED source without significantly impacting performance.

Since LED lights last up to 10 times as long as the High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights, far fewer lights will be out at any given time.

A remote monitoring and control system will be installed which will allow the City to immediately know when and where outages occur, and better manage the performance of the City’s lighting system. This is expected to greatly reduce the need for citizens to report outages via 311, and reduce the response time for required service.

New lighting will not be added under the scope of this project, only replacement of existing fixtures at existing locations.

That said, under the scope of this project, we will produce a lighting equity study that will help inform priority areas of the City in need of additional lighting that can be added through separate capital investment.

All cobrahead streetlights are Dark Sky compliant with no uplight above the fixture. Uplight will be minimized to the greatest extent possible for other streetlight types. The new LED lights will be designed to increase streetscape visibility and focus light downward toward the street and sidewalk where it is needed and limits light shining into nearby properties. Based on these factors, the City expects the program will improve nighttime visibility of roads, sidewalks, and alleyways while also reducing light pollution.

This project included stakeholder outreach and feedback with the goal of helping inform decisions made on the project by the design team. These decisions include issues such as the color temperature and brightness of LED lighting.

A warmer color temperature of 3000 Kelvin was chosen for the project and all cobrahead streetlights are Dark Sky compliant to minimize health concerns.

The approximately $91 million project will meet the requirements of the Pennsylvania Guaranteed Energy Savings Act (GESA), which requires project cost savings (e.g. electricity cost savings, operations and maintenance cost savings) to exceed the debt service payments over the 20-year project term. In simple terms, this means the project pays for itself.

PEA, in partnership with the City, issued bonds to fund the approximately $91 million project. The bonds will finance and reimburse the cost of construction and installation of energy-efficient streetlighting infrastructure citywide. These are the City’s first Sustainability Bonds.

The City’s second party verifier, Kestrel stated that the 2023 Bonds are highly impactful, net zero aligned, conform with the four core components of both the Green Bond Principles and the Social Bond Principles, and therefore qualify for Sustainability Bonds designation.

When fully installed and commissioned, we expect that the new LED streetlights will reduce current streetlighting energy use by 50% and energy cost by 25%.

Streetlights will go out less frequently because LEDs are longer-lasting. A remote monitoring and control system will be installed which will allow the City to immediately know when and where outages occur, and better manage the performance of the City’s lighting system. This will create operations and maintenance efficiencies for the Streets Department.

This project is Philadelphia’s largest energy conservation project, projected to cut more municipal carbon emissions (nearly 10%) than any other energy efficiency project, as laid out in the City’s Municipal Energy Master Plan.

In 2020, Philadelphia City officials launched Vision Zero, a citywide commitment to end traffic fatalities by 2030. Through the Vision Zero Action Plan 2025, the Philadelphia Streets department committed to replacing at least 2,000 high pressure sodium fixtures with LEDs each year. This project will help accelerate this timeline, seeking to replace all city-owned and -managed fixtures with LEDs over the project timeline.

Philadelphia is not the first city to complete a LED lighting conversion project. Other cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, have already completed similar projects citywide.