Which should lead to cheaper prices in the future

The city already has employed LED lights downtown with the development of N.C. Veterans Park, which opened last year. The new lights are up in the parking lot and along Bragg Boulevard next to the Airborne & Special Operations Museum. And the Amtrak station parking lot has recently converted to LED high bay light with a federal grant, said Craig Hampton, the city's special projects director.

While LED fixtures are still more than three times the cost of purchasing a sodium-vapor bulb, the price of $400 for one LED fixture has dropped 20 percent in just the past year since PWC began planning the pilot study, said Carolyn Justice-Hinson, the utility's main spokeswoman. And more manufacturers are joining in the craze, which should lead to cheaper prices in the future, she said.

PWC has another motive for the pilot study: The General Assembly in 2007 passed a law requiring public utilities to start investing in renewable energy and power-saving measures such as LED lights.

In most cases, PWC will use the same poles and replace the bulbs and fixtures hanging over the roadways. But PWC will use the study to decide whether cul-de-sacs, for instance, need brighter LED bulbs than those that will go up on blocks of streets.