Energy-efficient LEDs are enabling more households in India to have access to electricity and lighting! How? By reducing the energy the country already uses.
Indian Prime Minister Modi promised to make electricity and lighting available to all households in the country by 2020, and the Ministry of Power is attempting to follow through on that promise with a new program. They will begin offering subsidized LED bulbs to households in an attempt to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption. The LED bulbs will be purchased in bulk by an energy efficiency services company and will be sold to consumers at a lower, subsidized rate. This program will begin in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh’s government had previously opened bidding to companies and awarded the contract to Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which could provide consumers with LED bulbs at the lowest cost. For a single LED bulb, the quoted price with EESL was ₹204 ($3.30), comparably less expensive than the market price of ₹400 ($6.50). The subsidized rate for the LED bulb is ₹10, or $0.16. Each household in the state will be able to receive two LED bulbs from the program. Electricity suppliers will repay EESL with the cost savings realized from lowered energy consumption.
Two million LED bulbs have already been obtained for distribution, and the goal of the Demand Side Efficient Lighting Programme is to provide subsidized LED bulbs to 3.7 million households. The government is also working on a similar program aimed solely at impoverished households. Approximately 750,000 LED bulbs have already been distributed in the territory of Pudhuchery, and streetlights have been retrofitted with the newer, energy-efficient LED bulbs.
This initiative is intended to solve the problem of demand-supply mismatch and benefit the electricity sector. Incandescent lamps are still widely used across India, and replacing them with LED bulbs will drastically lower energy consumption.