MUMBAI: Ahead of the festival of lights, Maharashtra is saving 93MW power daily during peak hours, while the country is saving 762 MW by switching over to LED lamps. This includes usage by residents, commercial units and government establishments.

It has led to a reduction in the state’s consumers’ billing by Rs 145 crore, and nationally, the reduction is about Rs 1,178 crore. These preliminary estimates of reduction in billing, consumption and carbon-saving were released by the Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), which is implementing the national domestic efficient lighting programme (DELP).

Carbon-saving in Maharashtra is estimated at about 637,000 tonnes of CO2. Nationally, it is around 5.17 million tonnes of CO2. If the trend of going in for LED lamps continues, the money and carbon-saving could be huge, experts said. DELP helps distribute LED bulbs almost three times cheaper through government-run distributors.

Maharashtra has a target of saving about 700MW, which means a saving of about Rs 4,200 crore. Nationally, the target is to replace all 77 crore incandescent bulbs sold in India with LED ones. It will result in a reduction of a 20,000MW load, an energy saving of 100 billion kilo watt per hour and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings of 80 million tonnes every year. The annual saving in electricity bills of consumers will be about Rs 40,000 crore, considering an average tariff of Rs 4 per kWh (unit).

Of the 16,000 MW power required by state consumers, around 3,500 MW is consumed by residents and 1,000 MW by commercial and office establishments. Industrial, agricultural and other consumers such as the railways, civic bodies and hospitals consume around 6,000, 4,000 and 1,500MW respectively.

Over 28 lakh LED bulbs have been distributed under the DELP in Maharashtra. It has been implemented in 11 districts in Maharashtra, with 68,000 being distributed in Mumbai.

MSEDCL MD Omprakash Gupta said the state plans to distribute six crore LED lamps over two years. “In two years, the state may reduce power consumption by up to 1,800MW,” he said.

LED bulb prices that EESL has been able to get have come down from Rs 310 in February 2014 to Rs 73 in June 2015, sources pointed out.

