Shri R K Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Government of India, on Saturday dedicated 4,611 smart and energy-efficient LED lights to the people of Ara, Bihar, today. These LED lights have been installed in a record time of just three weeks under the Street Light National Programme (SLNP) of the Ministry of Power, Government of India. Ara Municipal Corporation is expected to save 27 lakh kWh energy/year, and Rs. 13.6 crore over seven years.
SLNP is the world's largest streetlight replacement programme being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL)- a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. The Government of Bihar had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in December 2017 with EESL to retrofit and install approximately 3 lakh conventional street lights with LEDs in all 38 districts. Within a record time of only three weeks, EESL has replaced 4,611 conventional lights with LEDs and completed the infrastructure work for segregation of street light circuit from normal electricity distribution circuit in the city.
As a part of this drive, EESL is collaborating with all 143 ULBs in 38 districts of Bihar, including 12 Nagar Nigams, 46 Nagar Parishads and 85 Nagar Panchayats. Once all these conventional street lights are replaced with LEDs, these LED lights will help the ULBs as well as the nation to save over 7 crore deemed units of energy annually, with an avoided peak demand of 17 MW. The retrofitting drive will also lead to an annual reduction of over 57,400 tonnes of CO2 playing a crucial role in India’s climate goals.
These ‘smart lights’ are connected through a web-based monitoring system that enables remote operations and additional operational savings. EESL has installed 89 panels of Centralised Control and Monitoring System (CCMS) with GIS mapping for remote control and monitoring of street lights.
It may be mentioned that the procurement price of the LED streetlights has reduced from Rs. 135/watt to Rs. 70/watt due to mass procurement by EESL making LEDs affordable and accessible. EESL makes the entire upfront investment in retrofitting the streetlights. Municipalities pay EESL from the savings in energy and maintenance cost over seven years.
