Tuesday, August 19, 2014: A proposal has been suggested by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) to illuminate all streets in the city through LED (light emitting diode) lights. These lights will save energy and also help in cost-cutting. If this power plan comes out successful, then all 96,000 sodium vapour streetlights will be replaced with LEDs.
The project will be assisted financially by the Union ministry and it will be executed in the public private partnership (PPP) mode. The proposal is at its discussion phase now and only the existing 72 wards of six zones will fall under this GVMC plan. The newly developed Bheemili and Anakapalle will not be a part of this project, though. GVMC commissioner MV Satyanarayana confirmed these plans and said that as the instructions from the Central government say, the proposals have been chalked out accordingly. But the project is still in its preliminary stage.
Quoting Satyanarayana, “If we replace all the sodium vapour streetlights with LEDs, we require nearly Rs 70 to 80 crore. We are in talks with the central government for assistance in getting authorized agencies like Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to take up the project. While for the first five years GVMC will have to pay Rs 26 crore to the agency, the entire system will be handed over to us after that.” GVMC’s electrical department has revealed that this project will save nearly 50 per cent of electricity charges as the city streets are illuminated by Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Ltd (APEPDCL) now.
GVMC’s deputy electrical engineer SSR Varma said that the corporation pays Rs 19.6 million per month to APEDDCL presently, for power supply to 96,000 streetlights in the city, excluding Bheemili and Anakapalli. Hence the power bill comes around Rs 235.2 million for the corporation. Now Varma said, “If all these 96,000 streetlights are replaced with LED lamps, GVMC will be able to save nearly 50 per cent of its electricity charges every month, which works out to a saving of Rs 11.76 crore per annum. At present, there are only around 180 LED lamps in some places like Marikavalasa and Kommadi in the city that were put up on a pilot basis.” However, as elaborated by a senior EPDCL official, installing LEDs is an expensive affair as each LED system costs nearly Rs 250,000 million.
