After changing the landscape of India’s energy efficiency scenario, state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) is now all set to expand and deliver its expertise overseas.
According to ET Energyworld, Among other geographies, EESL is looking to make a significant investment in UK and launch its operations on affordable LED there as early as next week, sources said.
The company also aims to expand its operations in other parts of Europe, Canada, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh and has already signed close to 10 Memorandums of Understanding with different countries.
EESL is a joint venture of various state-owned companies, was set up by India’s Ministry of Power as part of the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency of Power. The company has several projects underway to promote efficiency in households, public buildings, street lighting and agriculture.
The major focus so far has been on lighting, as it represents 10-15 per cent of national electricity consumption and can be reduced by at least half once old inefficient light bulbs have been replaced by LEDs.
Set up in 2009, the company’s revenue has risen 10-fold to an estimated Rs 715 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 700 million from the previous fiscal. In 2017-18, it expects revenue to more than double to Rs 15 billion.
Under its flagship scheme – Unnat Jeevan by Affordable Lighting for all (UJALA), distributed over 230 million LED bulbs so far. The energy savings from the scheme alone have surpassed over 3,000 crore kWh and reduced carbon emissions upto 24 million tonnes and has helped avoid over 6000 MW of peak demand in the country.
The UJALA scheme is built on the concepts of monetisation of energy savings and aggregation resulting in low-bulk cost making the programme the largest no-subsidy public scheme in the world.
As of mid-2016, the LED bulb market saw an investment of about $455 million (Rs 2,957 crore) from 2015, which is a six-fold increase. The expansion of the UJALA scheme has created 60,000 additional jobs.
