2.2.2 Maintenance Costs

The energy efficiency of various kinds of photocontrols can be hotly debated. However, the real story is in maintenance costs. The data in the histogram below are taken from unaudited surveys received from more than 300 utilities in 1992-1993. As you can see, the average cost is $29.04. Since then, as deregulation gathered steam, utilities have done more analysis of their maintenance costs. Now figures from $42.50 to $100 per maintenance call are reported, depending on type of service territory; e.g., congested cities with short mileage between trouble spots may take longer to service than distant points in a rural area.

For a system of 20,000 lights, the difference between a 10% failure rate and a 1% failure rate is 1,800 trouble tickets. At $29.04 per maintenance call, this additional labor would cost $52,000 annually. For a system of 150,000 streetlights, the difference between a 10% failure rate and a 1% failure rate would be $392,000.