Milwaukee is converting 54,000 street lights to LEDs by 2026

Milwaukee’s street lights are about to shine much brighter as the Department of Public Works (DPW) moves forward with plans to upgrade 54,000 lights to energy-efficient LED bulbs by next year.

To support this transition, DPW is also upgrading certain circuits to be LED-compatible. Many of the city’s 77,000 street lights and 10,000 alley lights are connected to series circuits that date back to the early 1900s.

According to the DPW website, these circuits operate by sending a constant current at a high voltage to each street light. Similar to old-fashioned holiday string lights, if one light fails or a fault occurs in the circuit, all lights beyond the issue lose power. Because of their high voltage, series circuits cannot support LED lighting.