Feb. 22. By Dave Vieser. If your neighborhood has had street light issues, blame it on COVID and the weather. On another front, there is an ongoing shift to LED products and a nearly complete phase-out of incandescent lighting products.
Background
Three different electric utilities serve the town, and each has its own set of problems when it comes to light bulbs.
Energy United
EU serves the western portion of Cornelius where an unusually large number of streetlights are out. It’s all tied to a shortage of bulbs. A company operator confirmed Monday that they are having difficulty getting replacement bulbs. Normally they repair lights within 48 hours but the wait times are currently running as long as two weeks.
ElectriCities
This utility serves the area east of I 77 and in general has been experiencing longer delivery times for all materials according to Manager Don Mitchell. “Recent bulb purchases have taken 5 to 8 weeks to receive, while a year ago we would expect bulb shipments within two weeks of placing an order,” he said. Thus far they have been able to adjust their ordering priorities to compensate for the longer lead times in most instances.
Duke Energy
Duke Energy serves scattered portions of the town, including The Peninsula, where the desired brightness of the light is an issue. There have been a number of spots where Duke has replaced street light bulbs with LED nights. They’re much brighter and some people do not like that.
The Peninsula Property Owners Association contacted the Town of Cornelius for help and they’ve been able to change a few LEDs back to the more low-key Moonglows.
All that said, Duke explains that the Moonglow lights are now difficult to acquire. They will eventually have to switch all of the Peninsula streetlights bulbs over to LEDs.
Report lights out
Despite the delay in replacing the bulbs, officials from all three utilities urged residents to continue reporting street light outages promptly by using the following numbers:
ElectriCities 704-948-0550
Energy United 704-892-0278
Duke Energy 800-777-9898
Contact the Town via email or by calling 704-892-6031 if you are unsure of which electric utility company services your area.
Some HOA communities maintain their own streetlights so if you live in a subdivision, and are in doubt, check with your HOA or property manager.
