By Brian Trompeter
Utility companies have converted tens of thousands of Fairfax County streetlights to energy-efficient LED lamps since 2019, but county leaders say more lights need to be switched to LED and additional ones provided to bolster safety and security.
Fairfax County has 60,000 streetlights – the largest municipal inventory in Virginia – with 57,752 owned by Dominion Energy Virginia and 2,248 belonging to the Northern Virginia Electrical Cooperative (NOVEC).
The utilities operate and maintain the streetlights via multi-year contracts, while the county pays for operating costs, said Aileen Santiago, chief of the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services’ (DPWES) Streetlights and Developer Default Branch.
The Virginia Department of Transportation also owns, operates and maintains streetlights on traffic-signal poles at major interchanges, she said in a March 28 presentation to the Board of Supervisor’s Safety and Security Committee.
The county’s $9 million LED (light-emitting diode) streetlight-conversion program began in May 2019 and will be finished in fiscal 2024. Under the program, all new streetlights must have LED lamps with a color temperature no higher than 3,000 degrees Kelvin (or about that of an incandescent light bulb).
Within Dominion Energy’s service area, the program has converted 34,000 streetlights so far and about 9,000 more are scheduled to be switched over.
While NOVEC is installing LED streetlights to replace failing lights, its LED inventory is limited and the utility is not accelerating such replacements for its customer base, Santiago said.
NOVEC provides streetlights in Sully and Springfield districts, said Supervisor Kathy Smith (D-Sully).
“When I look at the number of streetlights we have in Sully District, it’s not right that NOVEC isn’t doing the conversions there,” she said. “It’s time for us to advocate for those constituents that aren’t in the Dominion service area.”
The streetlight-conversion program removes an estimated 32.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually and saves about $1.4 million per year in energy costs, Santiago said. But some of those savings have been negated by higher energy prices and other factors, she said.
Dominion Energy also has been offering LED lights to private-property owners to help them comply with county code and lighting recommendations listed by the International Dark-Sky Association, Santiago said.
DPWES also runs a streetlights-petition program that allows a majority of residents living on eligible roadways to ask the county to add lights in those locations.
Department officials have requested that county supervisors allocate additional discretionary funds to accommodate streetlight requests in each magisterial district and work with elected officials in other NOVEC service areas to encourage the utility to do further LED-streetlight replacements.
Supervisor Rodney Lusk (D-Franconia), who chairs the Safety and Security Committee, said Santiago’s presentation highlighted well the county’s current streetlight efforts, but he desired more information about how future light requests would be handled and financed.
Streetlights can cost up to $10,000 – well beyond the budget of some community associations – and a county program provides up to only $2,000 per light, Lusk said.
Regarding discretionary funds for each supervisor’s office, streetlight requests must compete with other funding priorities, Lusk said.
“We’re basically discouraging, in some cases, these [streetlights] because of the costs that are associated with building these facilities,” he said, adding that the volume of light requests cannot be met with current programs.
Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill) said the county should analyze potential crime and traffic-and-pedestrian-safety issues associated with a lack of streetlights.
“This shouldn’t just be on district supervisors,” Alcorn said. “We need more data on whether on not we need to actually jump into a larger issue.”
Geographic Information System data lists where the county’s streetlights, are and the county’s public-facilities manual provides guidance on where they should be, but not all residents want them, said DPWES director Chris Herrington.
“In trying to define the universe of what is the unmet need, we can’t do it,” he said. “If the board chose to fund additional allocations to the discretionary funds, we could expand the current program.”
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D) asked county staff to compile a list of streetlight requests by district that have not been done because of insufficient funding. But the county’s streetlight program has shown some success, he added.
“It’s a really good-news story here from an environmental and a financial-savings standpoint,” McKay said. “It shows the investment we made on the environmental front is paying itself back in a massive way . . . We want to make sure we maximize that.”
