Rajasthan becomes the first state to adopt Centre’s Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) in all its urban local bodies (ULB). Almost 5 lakhs conventional streetlights have been replaced with LED streetlights across the state.
The project has been funded by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL),a public energy services company under the administration of Union ministry of power at no cost to the state.
Managing director of EESL Saurabh Kumar notified that Udaipur and Ajmer lead the way to energy efficiency. EESL has replaced over 35,000 conventional streetlights in Udaipur, with an investment of over Rs 25 crore which has resulted in reduction of peak load by 1,400 kwh, making them 51% more energy efficient. The project has resulted in energy savings of 6.36 million units per annum as well as monetary savings to the municipality of over Rs 4.4 crore.
In Ajmer, over 33,000 lamps have been replaced, with an investment of over Rs 14 crore by EESL. The project here has benefited Ajmer with reduction in peak load of 58% which translates to over 4.6 million units of energy saved per annum and over 3.7 crore in monetary savings.
Through implementation of this project energy savings achieved so far have been 152 million units, and cost saving to the municipality of Rs 60 lakh daily. This has also resulted in reduction of 225 tonne of CO2 per day, claimed state government employees. SLNP was launched on January 5, 2015, as part of which 3.5 crore conventional streetlights will be replaced with smart and energy efficient LED street lights by March 2019.
EESL conducts appropriate quality checks right from the bidding stage to the field level. This has resulted in the LEDs’ overall technical fault being less than 2% in the 13 lakh lights installed by EESL in the country.
In the approach of the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.
By Baishakhi Dutta
