Wednesday, September 03, 2014: The city of Hyderabad is facing huge power crisis problems and now the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is has taken steps to increase power saving. A proposal has been made to replace the age-old street lighting system with light-emitting diodes (LED).
Better illumination and less power consumption are the main USPs of the LED lights. This proposal has been submitted to the corporation’s standing committee and awaiting its approval. Under this project, the capital investment will be done by the Energy Efficient Services Limited (ESSL) in selected parts of the city. The main aim of ESSL is to implement energy efficient projects on a turnkey basis and it gets support from urban local bodies and state governments.
The project also covers a replacement warranty of street lights and also free operation and maintenance during this tenure. There will be also a centralised monitoring and control system in the place. ESSL is contribution of four PSUs including National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).
GHMC limits have 340,941 streetlights under it which consume around 58.75 MW of power. The corporation’s annual expenditure for the street lights are Rs 1908.4 million. Of the total number of street lights, around 171,793 are 150w high pressure sodium vapour (HPSV) lights while other lights include 250w HPSV (70,209), 70w HPSV (47,520), 40w tubes (16,475), 250w MH (16,536), 400w MH (18,150), 120w LEDs (254) and 250w Induction (4). According to GHMC officials the maintenance staff of the electrical wing were switching on the streetlights by 5p.m. and then they are left on till 8 a.m. in the morning. Officials added, “Through LED lighting, this can be eliminated besides conserving power for two to three hours a day.”
