Green Energy Fail: Lights in Massachusetts High School Have Been Stuck On for Over a Year

The lights at Wilbraham, Massachusetts’ Minnechaug Regional High School have been stuck on for over a year due to a software fault in the school’s “green lighting system.”

NBC News reports that a software error in the lighting system has left Wilbraham, Massachusetts’ Minnechaug Regional High School in a state of constant illumination for almost two years. The system, which was installed when the school was built more than ten years ago with the intention of saving money and energy, has been inoperable ever since the software malfunctioned on August 24, 2021, costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars.

According to Aaron Osborne, Assistant Superintendent of Finance at the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District, “We are very much aware this is costing taxpayers a significant amount of money, and we have been doing everything we can to get this problem solved.” As a result of the pandemic and its aftermath, energy prices have fluctuated wildly, making it challenging to calculate the precise cost of the malfunction. According to Osborne, the monthly average net impact is in the thousands but not the tens of thousands.

The high school’s constant lighting is an obvious waste of tax dollars. Wilbraham’s town selectmen stated in a letter to the members of the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District, “The image it projects is one of profligacy in a time when many families in the communities the District serves are struggling with their own energy costs.”

1,200 students attend the high school, the only one in its district, who come from the towns of Wilbraham and Hampden. The present 248,000-square-foot high school building was opened in 2012. A “green lighting system” that used software to control the lights in the building was one of the cost-cutting measures the school board insisted on. Because the lights are adjusted automatically as needed, the system was supposed to conserve energy.

However, in August 2021, staff members at the school noticed that the lights were burning brightly through the night and did not dim during the day. “The lighting system went into default,” said Osborne. “And the default position for the lighting system is for the lights to be on.”

The company that installed the system was originally contacted right away by the school board, but it had undergone several ownership changes since the high school was constructed. It took several more weeks after they located Reflex Lighting, the company’s present owner, before they could locate someone who was familiar with the high school’s lighting system.

The perpetually lit high school soon generated complaints from locals to Wilbraham’s town selectmen. However, there is still hope that Minnechaug’s lights will soon be turned down. according to Paul Mustone, President of the Reflex Lighting Group, the parts required to replace the school’s system have arrived from the factory in China. They anticipate installing the new system during the February break. “And yes, there will be a remote override switch so this won’t happen again,” said Mustone.

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