Thursday, June 27, 2013: The Vazhuthaqcaud – Vellayambalam stretch in Kerala is to be replaced by LED lamp lighting as opposed to the current sodium vapour installations. This has been a demonstration project for five years now and things have started falling into place. The proposed Light Emitting Diode street lighting was proposed back in 2008 by the EMC (Energy Management Cell) under the Power Department of the state. As quoted to sources, the project was forcefully retendered and this has been the reason for the long delay.
However, the government has given work orders of installing 70 LED lights in this one-kilometer stretch and the process would be issued by the end of June 2013. The project certainly highlights the use of LED technology as a power saving feature.
The reason for the work being sidetracked is the demand for increased payments while the work was in the middle of completion. Prior to the increase in demand, three electricity poles and six lights had already been installed. Now that the work order is to be issued, we could be sure that it would take less than three months at the maximum for the installations to materialize. The process with 100 watt LED lamps would save the state more than 60% in power expenditure for the stretch.
The LED project is sponsored by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and the Union Government. According to the energy technologist at EMC, Johnson Daniel, this would push the city forward to a cheaper and efficient street lighting regime.
