Walking through the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus at night is getting brighter thanks to an ongoing, campus-wide installation of 800 LED street and parking lot lights. The effort is part of a three-year partnership between Eversource and UMass Amherst which began in 2014. The combined electricity savings from the partnership of approximately 9 million kilowatt-hours is the greenhouse gas equivalent of taking about 1,300 vehicles off the road.

“These are the types of ongoing, long-term partnerships we’re proudest of,” said Tilak Subrahmanian, Vice President of Energy Efficiency at Eversource. “This is a prime example of how capitalizing on the power of energy efficiency saves money, helps the environment, and, in the case of a major learning institution like UMass, creates a safer campus.”

LED lighting distributes light more evenly, making it safer and easier to see where you’re going, while at the same time producing less glare and leaving fewer dark areas.  Plus, LED technology helps the school’s closed-circuit television monitoring system and security cameras take clearer images because enhanced lighting allows for higher resolution pictures.

The new street and parking area lights will use 50 percent less electricity than the existing lights and will result in annual energy savings approximately equal to the typical consumption of 90 single family homes.  For this reason, the project fits nicely within the University’s comprehensive sustainability plan according to Ezra Small, the UMass Campus Sustainability Manager.  “The LED program with Eversource is an integral part of our long-range sustainability planning,” said Small, “and an important step in helping UMass Amherst achieve broad institutional energy and emissions reduction goals.”

When the lighting installation is complete this fall, the University will be saving more than $50,000 a year in electricity costs. In addition to these savings, Eversource worked with the University to create a financial incentive which will significantly reduce the project cost. This incentive is allowing UMass Amherst to fully upgrade their street and parking area lighting all at once, rather than through a phased-in plan as in past years.