Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has signed an MoU with the Urban Development Department (UDD), Government of Maharashtra for replacing all conventional streetlights across Maharashtra with LED lamps. The MoU signing was held in presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Under EESL’s Street Lighting National Programme, approximately 20 lakh existing streetlights will be retrofitted with LED lights in all major cities of Maharashtra. Nearly 394 ULBs under the administrative control of UDD in Maharashtra will be covered in a phased manner. The project implementation will include replacement of existing sodium vapor, mercury vapor lights with LED lights and their maintenance for a period of seven years. Prominent cities and towns to be covered under the SLNP project are Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli and Nanded.
Commenting on the MoU signing, Saurabh Kumar, Managing Director, EESL, said, “It gives us immense pleasure to expand the Street Light National Programme in Maharashtra. The scheme will enable easy adoption to LED streetlights by the ULBs, without any upfront payment. We are confident of a 50 per cent reduction in power bills of the ULBs, which are to be benefited by this initiative in the State. We have already implemented the SLNP scheme successfully in Amaravati and the result speaks for itself.”
Under the agreement, EESL will provide a 360-degree support to Maharashtra wherein the former will supply, install, commission and provide the service and maintenance of LED street lights including the post installation maintenance and warranty replacement.
Further, the energy savings for a specific project depends on various factors, including existing lighting technology, new lighting technology, control strategies, and charging the illumination level during retrofits. Holding true to EESL’s vision of deploying future-ready technology that boost efficiency and reduces costs, LED lamps are outfitted with a Central Control Monitoring System (CCMS), which allows remote monitoring and operation of the lights once the installation phase is over. The system sends alerts for each light that needs attention, reducing the chances of failure and sudden repair. Therefore, the avoided capacity of electricity can be ascertained from the reduced consumption of electricity.
The street lights project has been successfully completed in Amaravati where 35,922 streetlights across the city were replaced by LED lamps. The power consumption after replacement came down to 1,673 KW as against the previous 3,900 KW. The annual energy consumption of Amaravati reduced to 7.33 MU from 17.08 MU – saving a whopping 9.75 MU annually. Prior to the implementation of the pilot project, the annual energy bill along with maintenance stood at Rs 123.34 crore, which came down to Rs 42.65 crore with LED streetlights. The overall cumulative savings for the Amravati ULB for the project period of seven years stands at Rs 28.85 crore.
