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MTA Metro-North Railroad has taken steps to conserve energy at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal by using environmentally sustainable compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) instead of incandescent bulbs.

The agency recently installed more than 1,700 CFLs throughout the terminal’s public areas, which will save about $100,000 a year on utility bills and more than 100,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. CFLs also last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, Metro-North said.

The agency began transitioning to CFLs in non-public areas of the station several years ago, but needed to obtain approval from the New York State Historic Preservation Office to change the bulbs in historic public areas. Because Metro-North needed to maintain historic standards, it couldn’t make the switch to CFLs until the bulbs were designed to closely resemble the shape of incandescent bulbs.

The CFLs follow recommendations included in an interim report released earlier this month by the MTA Commission on Sustainability, which called on MTA agencies to become more energy efficient.