Monday, October 20, 2014: Puducherry government started distributing cost-effective LED bulbs to every household since the beginning of 2014 and by 7 October, when the Nobel prize was announced for inventors of the blue light-emitting diodes (LED) in Stockholm, every household in Puducherry has been lit up by LED bulbs successfully.
This is one of the biggest drives in India to reduce power consumption and endorse energy conservation. Demand Side Management based Efficient Lighting Programme (DLEP) responsibly replaced all the high power-consuming incandescent bulbs with LEDs. Around 2,45,000 households have received a total of 0.74 million 7 watt LEDs at Rs 10 each. This successful energy conservation drive will help save up to 48.75 million units of energy annually. A Puducherry power department official detailed about the feat saying, low cost LEDs mean lower electricity charges, which are obviously meant for consumer benefits first and then for power utilities too as demand for consumption reduces a lot.
The director of Institute of Energy Studies at Anna University, Prof S Iniyan, also says that demand for power gets reduced tremendously with the help of LED bulbs and a state like Tamil Nadu, which is always fighting power crisis, LED lightings are like a boon. In a conversation with Deccan Chronicle, president of Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association of India (ELCOMA) and president of Havells India Limited, Sunil Sikka said, power load in India will reduce by 14 per cent by 2019 if LEDs replace incandescent bulbs.
EESL procured 7,50,000 lakh LED bulbs for Puducherry and at that time LED bulbs started getting priced at Rs 204 from Rs 310, which was previously Rs 400, just two weeks ago. But still these lights are expensive in comparison to CFLs but they also last 4-5 times more than CFLs. So basically LED lights are cheaper than other options, as explained by a power department official. LED lighting system is in full swing in Tamil Nadu households at this time, thanks to Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency and Chief Minister Solar Powered Green Houses Scheme (CMSPGHS). This scheme also proposes to equip around 3,00,000 houses with solar powered lighting systems.
