UPSTATE, S.C. (WSPA) – While driving around town you may have noticed an increase in street lights around the Upstate that are turning purple.
7 News’ Kristen Cheatam reached out to Duke Energy and they said this change in color is due to a manufacturer defect with their LED Lights.
According to the statement, Duke Energy has been upgrading many of their older and less efficient lights with LED lighting over the past few years.
Several hundreds of these white, street lights across the Upstate are now malfunctioning causing the lights to gradually turn deep purple.
Other utility companies across the nation are using these exact same type of LED lights and are experiencing the same issue. They believe this is the result of one bad batch of lights being distributed across the country.
“We are working with the vendor to better understand the issue and they are taking steps to ensure it does not happen again.”
Duke Energy urges residents to help them identify and fix these lights by reporting them online using their street light repair tool.
Once reported, field crews will repair the malfunctioning lights in a just few days.
