Lauderhill and FPL begin multi‑week LED streetlight conversion after residents report dark neighborhoods

Florida Power & Light representatives told the Lauderhill City Commission on Jan. 26 that conversion work to replace aging high‑pressure sodium fixtures with LED units will begin in the coming days, addressing neighborhoods residents described as “very dark.”

Christine Shaw, FPL’s North Broward external affairs manager, introduced the utility’s streetlight restoration and LED conversion team, and Gladys Reyes, FPL’s LED representative, said the city previously signed an agreement in February 2025 for 259 fixtures (phase one, completed in September 2025) and executed a second agreement in November 2025 to convert an additional 477 lights. Reyes said parts are on site, construction will start this week and the full phase should take about five to six weeks.

The conversion will be carried out in phases. FPL said it will reprioritize the phasing order to focus first on areas identified by the commission and staff as urgent, including Inverary West, areas around City Hall and other streets flagged by commissioners. Raj Prakash, FPL’s director of operations for street lighting, described the utility’s ticketing and work‑order process and said FPL relies on customer‑driven outage reports today while evaluating smart nodes and sensors that would provide proactive outage data in the future.

Commissioners and the vice mayor pressed FPL on response times and field conduct. FPL said standard restoration work orders are quoted up to 30 days, while straightforward bulb or fixture changes can be completed in roughly 7–10 days when parts are available; conversion projects remove the old fixture and replace it with the LED assembly. The commission raised complaints about contractor restoration of lawns and public spaces after work; FPL said some work is done by vendors and offered a follow‑up path for the city to request post‑work restoration when problems arise.

Lauderhill Police representatives also described repeated copper theft that had forced repeated restorations in some corridors; FPL officials said new fixture designs and set‑screw fasteners are intended to deter theft but acknowledged no fix is fully theft‑proof. FPL and the police chief agreed to coordinate on high‑theft corridors and FPL committed to share an asset inventory distinguishing city lights that are “energy‑only” versus FPL‑owned, and to return to the commission for a status update within the agreed six‑week window.

What’s next: FPL will begin mobilization this week, supply a detailed asset list that identifies ownership and priority areas, and return to the commission with a progress update after the 5–6 week conversion window.