Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. (CUC) is aware of an abnormal number of the light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights which have been continuously flickering. This is due to a failure in the photocell activated switch which senses light and turns the streetlights on at dusk and off at dawn.

When malfunctioning, the switch will rapidly turn the LED lights on and off for a few days until it fails permanently, after which the LED light will remain off. The LED light itself is not faulty, only the photocell switches.

The premature failure of the photocells is related to heat and moisture and is exacerbated when power to the light is interrupted as was the case on Wednesday, November 27, during the unscheduled outage, which affected a number of areas.

CUC has deployed crews to replace the affected photocells and in the longer term will work with the manufacturer to upgrade the photocells to a more robust design.

CUC is in the second year of a five year programme to replace the older high pressure sodium (HPS) lights with the highly energy efficient LED lights. This island-wide project is part of CUC’s effort to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and to provide cost savings to the National Roads Authority (NRA) to whom CUC provides the street lighting service.

CUC apologises for any inconvenience the flickering streetlights have caused.