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City details acquisition of streetlight assets and near-complete LED conversion
Summary
Streetlight program manager Matt Simpson said Centennial acquired roughly 2,800 street lights from Xcel Energy territory and completed about 85–90% LED conversion in 2025; staff described inline-fuse disconnects, smart controllers and a multi-year plan for permanent power separation.
Matt Simpson, the city's streetlight program manager, told council the city acquired about 2,800 street lights from Xcel (transcript: "Excel Power") in December 2024 and began system restoration and an LED conversion program in 2025. "Throughout the course of last year, we're able to get 85% of the fixtures changed to LEDs," Simpson said, noting the conversion work began in May 2025 and the city is ahead of schedule.
Simpson described three near-term commitments that followed the acquisition: an initial power-separation and inline-fuse temporary disconnect project (designed to allow field crews to de-energize fixtures safely), an LED conversion program intended to lower energy and maintenance costs, and a longer-term permanent power-separation effort that will require infrastructure work (pole boxes/stand-ups) with an extended completion horizon. He said the temporary inline-fuse installs were substantially complete by September 2025, with a small number of unique outliers remaining.
The program includes smart controllers that provide remote dimming, activity analytics and alerts to improve response and allow the city to adjust brightness levels; Simpson also described a pole-rehabilitation program and plans to apply ownership identification stickers and pole numbers to help residents report issues. He estimated a ballpark return-on-investment model in the mid-to-high teens of years and said staff is refining the ROI analysis.
Simpson emphasized safety and improved maintenance response were drivers for taking local ownership and said grant funding from the EPA will assist with a subset of fixtures. The city will continue prioritizing power-related restorations and a final push to finish LED conversions in 2026.
