Centennial OKs $3.1 million authority to begin citywide streetlight LED conversion

Centennial City Council on April 1 approved a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign contracts and intergovernmental agreements to begin a citywide streetlight LED conversion and related work.

The council approved Resolution 2025‑R‑11 after a presentation by Matt Simpson, the city’s streetlight program manager, who said Centennial acquired ownership of roughly 2,800 Xcel Energy–powered streetlights on Dec. 6, 2024, and has since shifted from maintenance‑inclusive billing to paying power only and performing maintenance in‑house. Simpson told council the selected contractor bid for LED fixtures and smart controllers totals $2,600,000 and staff recommended a contingency of $500,000, bringing the requested signing authority to $3,100,000 — above the current municipal signing limit of $300,000 and therefore requiring council approval.

Why it matters: ownership of the assets lets Centennial control maintenance timing, reduces recurring billing for maintenance-inclusive rates and enables operational steps to deenergize fixtures without coordinating with Xcel Energy once inline fuses are installed. The project also includes installing smart controllers on fixtures to enable remote scheduling and monitoring.

Simpson said the procurement produced eight responsive bids; the delivery schedule called for a 12‑month installation window. The conversion is designed to match existing fixture shapes where possible: about 2,500 of the city’s ~2,800 lights (about 95 percent) fall into three common fixture types for which LED equivalents are available. Staff proposed staging the inline fuse installation to occur as crews visit every fixture for the LED swap, targeting completion of fuse installs by September 2025. Simpson described two longer efforts tied to power separation: relocating city fixtures that are mounted on utility (Xcel) poles (target: December 2027) and full permanent power separation upgrades (target: December 2039).

Council members asked how relocations would be handled on a site‑by‑site basis, whether the city would need additional underground cabinets or large equipment, and how the smart controllers connect. Simpson said pole siting and whether a second dedicated pole is required would depend on clear‑zone and site conditions, that fuse hardware will be small and typically pole‑ or fixture‑level (not large cabinets), and that the recommended smart controllers use cellular service to reach the vendor platform; scheduled light behavior remains in the controller if cellular service is temporarily unavailable.

Fiscal details and maintenance: Simpson said the 2025 Streetlight Capital Projects budget totals $4,600,000 (about $2.5 million originally budgeted for LED fixtures and $1.5 million for smart controllers). Staff requested $3.1 million of signing authority tonight; after encumbrance the streetlight capital project would retain about $1.5 million for the planned fuse installation. Simpson said startup maintenance had already begun and that staff is prioritizing outages that affect public safety while collecting outage data and performing pole condition assessments to inform longer‑term pole rehabilitation. He listed tree trimming, targeted repairs, and coordination with GIS for record keeping as part of the maintenance program.

The council voted to approve the resolution. The record shows the motion carried with eight ayes.

The next steps Simpson outlined were council approval of the signing authority, beginning the LED conversion/procurement execution, performing fuse installations in tandem with fixture replacements, and updating pole condition data during the installation process. Staff said future work will include planning for removal of lights from Xcel poles and evaluating sites for permanent electrical separation upgrades.

Ending: City staff will proceed with contract execution and begin scheduling LED and fuse work after the city manager uses the new signing authority; staff will return with project updates and, as needed, to request use of contingency funds.