Proven Delivery Models for LED Public Lighting

Abstract

Birmingham’s light-emitting diode (LED) street lighting project is a small but integral component of a larger, innovative public-private infrastructure modernization effort - the Birmingham Highway Maintenance and Management Private Financing Initiative (HMMPFI) which the Birmingham City Council (BCC) signed with Amey plc on June 7, 2010. The modernization is being done under the PFI framework, which was created by the United Kingdom (UK) government to increase the availability of private financing for capital projects, and to transfer risk to the private sector through joint ventures and leasing agreements. The government has established a clear framework and tools around the PFI in England, including a standard form contract (the Standardization of PFI contract, or SoPC) that is mandatory for public sector use when creating PFI contracts. In the case of Birmingham, the private and public sectors came together in a partnership using private money to fund construction upgrades of the city’s infrastructure system according to set specifications. The partnership also included maintenance of the infrastructure for the remainder of the contract. Other entities, such as utilities, continue to have access to the asset to maintain their specific infrastructure within the public private partnership (PPP).