Under the Government of India’s Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP), Union power minister R.K. Singh recently dedicated 1 crore smart LED streetlights to the nation, which are illuminating 2.7 lakh km of roads in India.
Launched in January 2015, SLNP is the world’s largest streetlight replacement programme, being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, a joint venture of Central PSUs under the power ministry.
Locations: The 1 crore smart LED streetlights have been installed in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Pondicherry, Port Blair, Lakshadweep and Rajasthan, helping generate employment for around 13,000 people in the country.
Savings: The installation of 1 crore LED streetlights has resulted in annual energy savings of 6.71 billion kwh and avoided 1,119.40 mw of peak demand, resulting in reduction of GHG emission by 4.63 million tonnes of CO2 every year.
AP leads: Under SLNP, Andhra Pradesh is leading with an installation of 28.9 lakh LED streetlights followed by Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with 10.3 lakh and 9.3 lakh, respectively. As on October 1, 2019, 1,502 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across India have been enrolled under the programme out of which work has been completed in around 900 ULBs.
Innovative financing: EESL has adopted the Pay-As-You-Save (PAYS) model where EESL makes the entire upfront investment in installation of the LED streetlights and no additional budget allocation from the municipalities is required. The contract with the municipalities/ULBs is for a period of 7 years. The seven-year contract with the local bodies guarantees a minimum energy saving of typically 50 per cent and provides free replacements and maintenance of lights at no additional cost to the civic partners. The municipalities pay EESL from their savings in energy and maintenance cost over a 7-year period, making the LED lights affordable and accessible.
High quality: Under SLNP, EESL procurements conform to BIS specifications and carry a 7-year warranty against technical defects. EESL conducts appropriate quality checks right from the bidding stage to the field level. This has resulted in the overall technical fault of LEDs being less than 2 per cent in the 1 crore streetlights installed by EESL in the country. EESL has maintained an uptime of 97 per cent for all streetlights across the country.
Social audit: EESL undertakes social audits in the ULBs where the project is under implementation and post the completion of the project. These social audit results have shown that about 99 percent respondents feel more comfortable with the LED installations. They also feel that there is significant improvement in safety and business activities.
Vision 2020: By March 2020, SLNP aims to replace a total of 1.34 crore conventional streetlights in India with smart LEDs. This includes the 1 crore lights already installed. When installed, the 1.34 crore LEDs will enable peak demand reduction of about 1,500 mw, annual energy savings of 9 billion kWh, and reduction in 6.2 million tonnes of CO2 per year. EESL intends to bring investment to the tune of Rs.8,000 crore by 2024 by covering entire rural India. It is expected that more than 30 million LED streetlights would be retrofitted/installed by EESL.
(Featured photograph for illustration only)
