Doug Strachan
President
SST: Strachan Strategic Thinking
1755 North Brown Rd., Suite 200
Lawrenceville, GA 30043

ATL Parking Lot Lighting Throwdown

Situation

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The director of parking wanted to brighten up ATL's north and south parking decks to better compete with off-airport parking; the director of sustainability wanted to reduce energy consumption. These seemed at first to be two diametrically opposed requests. 

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Additionally, the lighting industry is notorious for "flipping the grid," when it comes to selling lighting. It's standard practice to convey future expected lighting via a series of photometric diagrams that consist of a number of data values on a platt. Such articulations provide an inkling into minimum and maximum lighting levels, and general distribution of light, but they do nothing to address quality of light. In fact, it could be said that purchasers of large scale lighting installation are not infrequently disappointed that the installations do not meet their subjective expectations.

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Most governmental agencies use requests for proposals (RFPs) and bids to buy lighting, procurement methods that do not allow for trying before buying and then picking the "best" option. RFPs rely on proposals submitted to requests, which are then "graded" by RFP evaluators not privy to what the lights will actually look like once installed; bids merely assess lowest price relative to minimum standards, and again do permit a real understanding relative to what the lights will eventually look like once installed.

Task

Create a way to try before you buy, and at the same time respect governmental purchasing rules designed to garner good value while allowing fair competition for governmental business.

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Action

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We created the "Throwdown" model, which invites the world's major eligible lighting manufacturers to fight it out for a parking lot lighting contract. Eligible means things like having. a presence in the United States (US) domestic market; a capitalization of at least 100 times the anticipated value of the lighting contract; substantial production in the US; light emitting diode (LED) lighting; the willingness and ability to deal directly with the City of Atlanta (City) and not a distributor; and the capability for one-stop-shop, i.e. manufacturing and installation.

 A US presence is essential for effective and efficient service. The capitalization requirement ensures that financial resources are sufficient to support the required warranty. Production in the US was a must relative to using federal grants. LEDs are the technology of choice that delivers the highest lighting values with the best uniformity. The direct-to-manufacturer provision means best value but is also crucial for the desired procurement model. A one-stop-shop is also vital for the simplified essence of the Throwdown approach.

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Working with the City's procurement team, the Department of Energy (DOE), Mayor's sustainability team, and the Department of Aviation's (DOA) parking, planning, engineering, sustainability, maintenance, and risk divisions, we moved forward with inviting the manufacturers, initially about ten, that met the aforementioned criterion. Some of those invited declined, leaving a list of seven participants in 2010, and four in 2020 a decade later.

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After establishing evaluation criteria consisting of average lighting levels (foot candles), standard deviation (foot candles), pricing, payback, warranty, and innovation, we had all the manufacturers and their installation teams meet to install 10 lights apiece, at their sole expense, for burn in and evaluation.

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Prior to installation, we laid out a grid of 250 data collection points under each manufacturer's test area. After installation, we took painstakingly accurate measurements to establish average lighting levels and standard deviation in footcandles. 

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We stated in our invitation that we wanted quantity, quality, and distribution of light that was at least as good as we already had. We wanted at least 50,000 hours (five years) of warranted performance, with the five years covering both parts and labor. Any manufacturer that missed any specified target was eliminated from competition, regardless of pricing. The manufacturer with the highest score was deemed the "winner" or most responsive, wherein we requested a "special procurement" in harmony with City code.

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Results

In 2010, the only two manufacturers met the performance criterion: General Electric (GE) and Cooper. We had indicated that we wanted to leverage the brand of the world's busiest airport, and asked for a significant discount, i.e., that it be amortized as an advertising expense. While GE did not embrace that model, Cooper did. The payback was just 3.5 years.

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We negotiated a first ever parts AND labor 5-year warranty. Over the warranted life of the lights, just one of about 4,000 lights failed. Replacing the 220 watt metal halide lights with 77.5 watt LEDs increased the average lighting by 0.5 foot candles; significantly reduced distribution standard deviation, thus increasing uniformity; and saved about $1.5 million in energy and materials avoidance over the fixtures seven year longevity. 

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DOA won the Atlanta Better Buildings challenge for several years because of the 2010 project. In 2020, we refined and repeated the process. Although saving the dramatic amounts of energy achieved the first time around was not possible on floors one through three of the north and south parking decks, we did succeed in increasing light output, further reducing standard deviation. This time, we negotiated a seven-year parts and warranty. On the fourth floors of the decks, the pole mounted lights, which the 2010 project did not contemplate, achieved an over 300% increase in light output, while halving the energy consumption.