Project Overview
PEA provided financing and project management of the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project (PSIP). From 2023-2026 Philadelphia’s 130,000 streetlights were upgraded to high-efficiency, longer-lasting LEDs. The project cut streetlight energy use in half, reducing municipal carbon emissions more than any previous City initiative, while saving Streets Department resources otherwise spent repairing and maintaining older fixtures. Brighter illumination is attributed to a measured reduction in violence across the city, validated by a first-of-its-kind study by the University of Pennsylvania Crime and Justice Policy Lab.
$8 million
Annual energy & operational savings
21% drop
Nighttime gun violence
10% fewer
Municipal carbon emissions
The Challenges
The Philly Streetlight Improvement Project is one of the country’s largest streetlighting upgrade projects. An infrastructure project of this scale required careful planning and coordination to secure financing, align partners, source and install the most effective equipment, and implement the upgrades.
The City’s streetlighting system reflected years of incremental updates. When outages occurred, identifying the issue relied on physical observation. More fixtures are concentrated in the city’s densest neighborhoods, raising equity challenges. At least 1,800 fixtures are within alleys previously inaccessible due to debris, vegetation or locked gates.
The Solution
PEA entered into an energy performance contract with Ameresco in August 2023, financed by a $91.2-million bond issued on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, fast tracking installation while aligning the project with long-term energy and operational savings. In just over 10 years the energy savings are projected to fully offset initial project costs. By the end of 2025, a network of remotely controlled light fixtures was installed on schedule and on budget.
The City’s Future Track program completed alleyway clearing to allow for access to fixture replacements, providing jobs for more than 200 people and training opportunities for future City employment. PEA partnered with American Power Electrical Supply Company, a minority business entity (MBE), to set up an on-site final assembly pod and hire a local team to assemble and test 40,000 fixtures before installation.
Community input helped shape how the streetlighting system would look in different neighborhoods across the city. Workshops gathered residents’ preferences around lighting conditions. Lighting performance was balanced with visual comfort, adapting solutions to distinct conditions of each neighborhood and also addressing light pollution concerns. Networked controls now provide City workers with real-time visibility into system performance, faster outage detection, and more precise maintenance while creating a foundation for future smart-city applications.
The result is a streetlighting system that delivers benefits residents can see. Streets are more consistently illuminated, while the upgraded infrastructure reduces energy use, lowers municipal carbon emissions, and supports measurable improvements in public safety.
Research conducted with the University of Pennsylvania yielded one of the first large-scale municipal streetlight replacement projects to track and demonstrate measurable safety benefits. A study conducted by the university’s Crime and Justice Policy Lab showed streetlight upgrades located in corridors experiencing the top percentile of nighttime crime saw a 21% reduction in outdoor nighttime gun violence, 16% decrease in property crimes, and 10% drop in total outdoor street crimes.
$200 million
Estimated lifetime savings
1,800 alleyways
Cleared of debris
11,000 tons
Avoided carbon emissions
