Professional Documents
Culture Documents
He called on Cleveland City Council to amend the ordinances and expressed concerns such as
the ordinance’s lack of technical specifications; a requirement of bundling four separate products
into the bid requirements; the length of the contract (10-years) for a technology that is rapidly
changing; requirements to include linear tube (fluorescent) light replacements which are seen as
not viable alternatives yet by the Department of Energy.
Petras also stated that the ordinance is written, “to steer a long-term contract to the
administration’s favored supplier”, alluding to the previous ordinance, number 496-10 that
would of provided a Chinese LED maker Sunpu – Opto, a contract with virtually the same
conditions as the current ordinance with exceptions it would not have had to compete for the
contract.
Paraphrasing from a conversation with an LED lighting expert affiliated with the
Department of Energy’s Solid State Lighting Program –
Multiple persons familiar with LED technology, manufactures and the general industry concur
that the top of the supply/value chain is the most likely area where jobs can be created with the
least cost and risk exposure for a company, but with also the lowest wage jobs being created.
A City official from a municipality that was one of the first adopters of LED lighting had
the following comments regarding our Administration’s plans and strategies –
“…Municipalities are excellent laboratories for this because of the wide diversity of lighting we
maintain and because we have a long-term vested interest in both energy and maintenance
savings since we generally own an asset for its entire lifetime once installed in one of our
facilities. When we started the partnership in late 2006, high brightness LED's had been
available less than a year…
…We often have vendors coming to us with claims regarding their products that we will
benchmark against what the technologists at Cree [LED City program] know about that product,
and they will often bench-test its performance before we make any commitments. In return we
are always trying new solid state lighting applications. We keep good data on our installations
and try to document our results, then discuss these results among our peers and at conferences.
…the landscape of products available in this market space is totally dynamic right now. There
are probably 4-8 times as many high-quality low-bay fixtures available now as this time last
year. Interior LED retrofit lighting, which was barely on the radar screen two years ago, now
shows up in Home Depot. Those manufacturers who introduced high quality fixtures in 2008
have already gone through a second generation of design and now are working on a third…
Also now many more companies, particularly the large lighting manufacturers like Kim Lighting,
GE, etc. are now jumping into the design business with both feet. That being said, making a
commitment to one company for 10 years seems highly risky. Unless that company happens to
be on the forefront of innovation in this field you might be left with inferior products for a long
period of time as the rest of the industry leaps ahead of you.
…LED is probably not a great space to do this [leverage purchasing power for jobs with a single
supplier] in because so many players are producing such innovative products, the products are
changing and evolving very fast and the standards world is struggling to keep up, and they are
not all the big boys like Philips, GE or Sylvania. Also companies tend to specialize in certain
LED applications (you may have some companies focusing on industrial lighting - high bay and
low-bay fixtures and wall-packs, while others specialize in interior decorative lighting) so it is
going to be very difficult (read: impossible) to find one company who can effectively supply the
highest quality LED products interior and exterior, big and small, industrial and decorative.
Right now I am VERY wary of Chinese fixture imports, particularly from companies that do not
have a big presence in the US. I'd rather somebody else try them out first. Our facilities people
As far as the job creation requirement, I am no politician, but though this will likely be good
politics, I think it is likely to result in either inferior products going into your municipal
applications or the company begging off on the deal somewhere down the road. This industry is
very likely to go the way of the rest of the semiconductor industry, with R&D happening in the
high-tech R&D centers in this country, fixture design in Europe or elsewhere in the US,
manufacturing of components in Asia, and reassembly either in Asia or the US depending on the
product. To hamstring a company into developing an assembly line in Cleveland when their
competitors are taking advantage of the global supply chain network will put them at a
disadvantage… I will simply say that we have benefited from buying things in small quantities
from a variety of manufacturers. As the landscape continues to rapidly change we will continue
to use this strategy to get the best, most innovative products installed for our needs.
We are looking at some wholesale streetlight changes but our strategy will probably involve a
multi-year rollout and may not involve the same fixture from beginning to end. If you have GE
headquarters in your market it is probably a lot better to leverage them to bring their R&D
operation to Cleveland for LED products as a way of being a good corporate citizen, since this
end of the business is not likely to be outsourced, and I would not think that trying to leverage
this with a sole source contract for all your LED fixture needs would be a wise way to try to
achieve this, since GE is not the industry leader in all these sectors (yet!?!)…
Average initial bare lamp light output of the LED T8 replacements tested was about one-third
the average for fluorescent T8s. On initial two-lamp system efficacy, two-lamp fixture output,
luminaire efficacy, and CRI, the LED T8 replacement performance was significantly below that
of the fluorescent T8s. Average fixture efficiency was higher with LED T8s because LEDs are
directional, so less light is lost inside the fixture. This was not enough to compensate for the
much lower light output…
To provide equivalent light output to fluorescent T8s and also save energy, LED T8s will need to
become two to three times more efficacious than they are today.”
See the DOE’s June 11th, 2010 warning regarding these products.
The strategies and conditions of the ordinance, although they are claimed as being beneficial to
the City, could have an impact at limiting competition and result in higher risks to the City in
terms of ensuring for the 10-year term, the quality of each individual product and their efficiency
and costs saving value.
Some of the procurement strategies being proposed to achieve this and alternatives are:
1. extraordinarily long-term contract (up to 10 years); [alternative: break the terms down
to one 3-year contract with two 3-year renewals.]
2. award to a single source supplier; [alternative: award contracts to lowest and best bid
per product and seek jobs creation from each.]
3. bundling or tying together products to be bid on and awarded for purchase;
[alternative: allow companies to bid on one or multiple products.]
4. inclusion of a product sited by the US DOE as not viable for full commercialization;
[alternative: eliminate the T-12, T8, fluorescent LED linear tube replacement lights until
such time their technology is more developed and proven in the maketplace.]
5. oversimplified and restrictive job creation requirements – 350 within 5-years;
[alternative: by allowing multiple vendors to compete for single or multiple products, and
requesting job creation proposals for each, the competitive nature of the contract would
be greater and the jobs creation component more likely to succeed.]
6. lack of specific technical standards requirements: [alternative: clearly stated minimum
technical standards and requirements and requirement of US DOE Energy Star rating for
products when available (Energy Star certification standards are established for two of
the four products; incandescent bulb and street light LED replacements).]
The plan does not allow for jobs to be created outside of Cleveland proper, i.e., within the region.
Nor, does it permit other potential related jobs that are created be counted, i.e., GE ostensibly
could hire positions related to other technology they are or would be involved in and the
company, Green Mill Global, based in Akron, who has been developing a relationship with
South Korean LED maker Fawoo, through Fawoo North Tech America, could establish the jobs
within the region as well as establish additional jobs for their affiliated wall-systems
manufacturing.
See the image below that describes the general value and supply chain for LED products. Note
that per industry experts the materials, components and finished product process (manufacturing)
involve the highest level of expertise and highest costs associated with the product. Whereas, the
end-line assembly, warehousing, sales and distribution are the lowest valued, costs and wages
associated with the operations.