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As the City of Richmond gets underway with the latest phase of a project to convert streetlights to light-emitting diode (LED) technology, it's happy to report things are going better than originally anticipated.

"We were able to leverage some additional budget to double the savings we were expecting in terms of electricity," says City of Richmond corporate energy manager Levi Higgs. "We projected over 200,000 kWh and got over 400,000 kWh by adding in some nearby areas; that's a big win."

He credits some of the big gains in savings to strategic energy management, which means continually improving energy efficiency through sound planning and communication. In this case, Higgs says they were able to identify and mitigate potential obstacles, and to perform due diligence around choosing the right fixtures. Lining up funding and getting buy-in from senior administration levels was also key.

"Strong corporate partnerships, like the one that the City of Richmond has with BC Hydro, are integral to initiatives such as the City's Energy Management Program, which strives to maximize energy efficiency at the City through sound planning and collaboration," says mayor Malcolm Brodie.

Higgs says strategic energy management helps everything go smoothly, particularly with a large-scale, multi-year, multi-phase project such as this one. In turn, that helps make the business case for other projects.

Learn more about the many ways integrating strategic energy management could benefit your business.