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"I mentioned seven things in the memo that was sent, which I will not go over again <br />because you've got them with you tonight, but I just wanted to mention a couple of highlights. <br />"One is the Section 631.5, which refers to the submittal of plans and designs for lighting <br />applications. This is of concern to Duke Power from the standpoint that, due to the volume of <br />lighting and everything, it is going to be challenging for everything to be submitted and reviewed. <br />I'm not saying it cannot be done, but the burden of the submittal and the approval process will fall <br />upon the requesting party. And it would be up to a public utility like Duke Power since we would <br />have to have that come in hand from the requesting party to us. That is not a service that could <br />be performed under the current rate structure. So that translates into extra costs to a requesting <br />party to have that submitted and brought to us, something that is approvable. Again, I don't think <br />that Duke Power has a position on that. We are just making everybody aware that that is a direct <br />action of the Ordinance that will take place. <br />"A lot of lights that Duke Power puts in are situations where there is a farmer or <br />somebody that has a convenience store or just somebody's gotten their own home and they <br />want a light installed. Duke Power supplies lights under the North Carolina Utility Commission, <br />which approves the light selection that is installed. And, currently, the guidelines we follow to put <br />the lights up are fairly straightforward and our desire is that they remain so under the Ordinance. <br />"The simplest way to do that is to make the foundational Ordinance the requirement of <br />cut -off fixtures, which I think would probably address 90 percent of the light pollution, light <br />trespass problem that we see today. The biggest irritant is the point source of light that you see <br />when you are outside looking at the light, and that light is not directed on the surface, it's directed <br />out, and even a relatively small light from a distance will be an irritant just because of that point <br />source that you can see. A cut -off fixture would address that and it is something very simple to <br />do. <br />"One caveat to that, to governmental agencies in that when you use cut -off fixtures, it <br />requires more fixtures in a given area to illuminate the same surface such as a roadway. We first <br />experimented with cut -off lighting in the Charlotte Metropolitan area over 20 years ago, and it has <br />very many advantages, but one of its disadvantages is that often times it takes more lights in a <br />distance to have the same uniformity ratio and the same illumination. <br />"So, what that translates to is more cost for agencies requesting lights, DOT, <br />municipalities, even private parties that want to illuminate a subdivision. I'm not saying that this is <br />a bad thing. It is just a fact of life that will happen in many cases. <br />"The other item I wanted to mention is the prohibition of mercury vapor. One thing to <br />keep in mind on that is that, currently, that is the low -cost option as approved by the Utility <br />Commission for most requesting parties. Mercury vapor is available in cut -off fixtures so the light <br />pollution issue would be addressed but the consumption issue would remain. <br />"One side note about the consumption issue: the rates for mercury vapor lights are a flat <br />rate, it's not based on consumption, it is based on a flat rate. Mercury vapor fixtures are a low - <br />cost option because it is less costly to install and it's less costly to maintain. The rates are set <br />and they are based on the cost of the consumption, the cost of the facilities and the cost that <br />Duke Power has to expend going out there and making a repair trip. Metal halide has more <br />maintenance involved than the mercury vapor, even though it is more efficient. So there are <br />some trade -offs. It's not a linear comparison that can be made sometimes. <br />"The other thing is that the electricity that is used for lighting at night is really not wasted <br />energy. I know that is hard to comprehend sometimes but the power system that Duke Power <br />and the other utilities use to generate electricity is designed to address peak loading situations <br />which occur during the daytime. We have to build that generation whether we use it or not. And <br />