All the streetlights under the Greater Hyderabad limits would soon be replaced with Light Emitting Diode (LED) streetlights in all the GHMC Circles.
The LED streetlights are expected to save 50 to 60 per cent of energy consumption of the civic body. At present the GHMC is incurring a huge expenditure of Rs 214.82 crore annually towards streetlights, including current consumption charges, labour and material costs.
Initially, GHMC proposed fixing 32,500 LED lights in Circle-10. The cost was estimated to be around Rs 64.39 crore. However, municipal administration and urban development minister KTR wanted the project be implemented within the entire GHMC limits. GHMC also gave green signal for the project a few days ago. The entire project now costs Rs 406 crore.
The main project will be implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) investing the entire capital cost and will be paid through savings over seven years.
As per EESL report, a joint venture of PSUs of the Ministry of Power with the Government of India, which will install the LED lights, states that load of streetlights would reduce from 72.13 MW to 31.81 MW.
The annual energy savings would be 176.6 million kwh.
Of the 406.86 crore project cost, EESL’s annuity will be Rs 108.42 crore, post retrofit energy charges per annum (Rs 104.14 crore), net savings to GHMC over seven years at Rs 2.26 crore per annum will be Rs 15.82 crore. To quantify the conservation, Centralised Control Monitoring System (CCMS) will be installed. The street lights will be controlled by CCMs.
Meanwhile, as per the social audit carried out by EESL, 69.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission will be avoided.
By Baishakhi Dutta
