OREANDA-NEWS. All 5 lakh street lights in Delhi would be replaced by LED lights within 1 year, saving over Rs. 1,000 crore over a 7 year period. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal , Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy here today, while witnessing the ceremony of signing of MOU between South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) for replacing 2 lakh conventional street lights in the SDMC area with energy efficient and smart LED lights at no upfront capital cost to SDMC.

Inspired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ’s announcement on the national launch of the LED lighting program on 5th January, 2015 that initially 100 cities in India would be covered by LED lighting, Shri Goyal announced that the nationwide rollout will be completed in 3 years. Within 4 days of the Prime Minister’s announcement, EESL and SDMC signed an agreement, Shri Goyal added.

LED lights offer significantly greater luminescence, for the same wattage. For instance, in Ward No. 161 in Adchini Village, a 150W sodium lamp was replaced with a 70W LED luminaire and the luminescence improved from 30 Lux to 312 Lux i.e. over 10 times! SDMC’s street lights today consume 10.7 crore Units today, but the twin features of lesser wattage and higher luminescence, the energy consumed can be reduced by upto 70%, thereby saving over Rs. 500 crores in 7 years i.e. 3 times more than the Rs. 175 crore required to install LEDs.

The repayments to EESL will be out of savings in energy and maintenance cost of SDMC over a 7 year contract period. EESL will also provide free replacements and maintenance of lights at no additional cost. Within just ten days of the LED street programme launch in Delhi on 25th December, 2015, street lights in three wards have been completely replaced by LED at Naraina, Laxmi Nagar and Malaviya Nagar areas.

In addition to this, as part of the pan India home lighting programme, domestic energy efficient lighting program for Delhi shall cover distribution of 1 crore energy efficient bulbs (with 7 year warranty) which shall lead to an overall energy saving of 25 crore units every year translating into a saving of over Rs. 1,000 crore on a 7 year period.

Surveys conducted in Malaviya Nagar, after installation of 1,100 LED street lights in place of conventional lights revealed immense satisfaction particularly for women (better security), small businessmen (increased lighting attracted more customers to their establishments), and the general public at large (sense of safety and lower propensity for road accidents).