“Once (about a year ago), when I went to PM for a discussion on reverse auction of coal mines, at the end of the conversation he casually asked me how many LED bulbs I had given out. I was taken aback. I did not go prepared. I said, ‘Sir, I will find out and get back to you.’ He said, ‘Piyush, this is not how you will achieve success. You should have the numbers. You have to monitor the work.’” — Piyush Goyal , minister of state with independent charge for power, coal, new and renewable energy, in an interview to ET Magazine.Piyush Goyal didn’t need any more goading. On returning to his office in Shram Shakti Bhawan in the Capital, he got down to work on prime minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion to monitor the rollout of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs.In a matter of days, a team of techies under his ministry began designing a software to access the statistics easily. Today, if you just Google Ujala Dashboard, you will get all the stats around LED bulbs — total LED bulbs distributed state-wise, and what it means in terms of energy and cost saving, CO2 reduction, and avoidance of peak electricity demand, all in real time.

For example, as on 9.52 am on Friday, as this article is being written, the government had handed out 11,13,49,397 LED bulbs of 7 and 9 watts — which consume considerably less power than the conventional GLS or incandescent bulbs.



You can also get the outcome of this number in real time: 3,96,18,115 kWh of energy saved per day, cost saving of Rs 15,84,72,462 per day, avoided peak demand of 2,895 MW and reduction of 32,091 tonnes of CO2 per day.

But how does Goyal, sitting in his New Delhi office — or, for that matter, you and me stationed anywhere in the world — get those figures in real time?Well, therein hangs a tale. Cut to Power House Chowk in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, the state where the government is rolling out its LED programme. Some 19 lakh bulbs have been distributed so far, which means that Odisha lags states like Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, in which 1.9 crore and 1.1 crore bulbs have been distributed respectively.Deepak Nayak, with identity proof and electricity bill in hand, has queued up outside a kiosk at the chowk to buy five 9 watt LED bulbs at the government rate of Rs 85 per piece (as against Rs 250-300 in Bhubaneswar markets). “Let me test these five bulbs first. If I see results, I will get five more later,” he says, explaining how he is eligible to buy up to 10 LED bulbs by showing his electricity bill and ID proof.Sambit Prashad Pradhan, a data operator at the kiosk, makes an entry about the five bulbs that Nayak has just bought. As Pradhan presses the save button on his black iBall laptop, the national dashboard gets updated — five more to the national tally of LED bulbs.Nayak has plenty of incentive to travel 3 km from IRC Village to Power House Chowk to buy LED bulbs. Keeping aside the variation in state tariffs and the watts of bulbs being replaced, one LED bulb on an average can save up to 129 kWh of power annually, resulting in a consumer saving Rs 519 per year, according to statistics available with the ministry of power.So, if Nayak goes on to replace 10 incandescent bulbs with LED, he can shave Rs 5,190 off his electricity bill annually. “I am replacing all the bulbs in my home in one go. My next month’s electricity bill will speak for the savings,” says Lakhsmidhar Barak, another customer.Making India an LED nation — with a target of replacing 77 crore conventional incandescent bulbs with LED — is an ambitious game plan, and its origins can be traced to the pre-Modi Sarkar era. Back in 2009, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a Union power ministry arm, prepared a roadmap to ensure the quality and reliability of LED lamps, apart from strategising on how to reduce its exorbitant price. In 2012, it was the BEE that spearheaded the establishment of national standards for LED lamps. “Twelve standards were issued by the Bureau of India Standards (BIS) in March 2012.And India became the first country to issue National Standards for LED lights,” says former BEE secretary Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma. Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a company now instrumental in procuring and distributing LED bulbs across the country, was established in December 2009 as a joint venture of four power-sector Central PSUs — NTPC, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and Power Grid Corporation, mainly to facilitate the implementation of the government’s energy efficiency projects.In January 2016, when UPA-II was still in power, EESL made its first round of procurement — about six lakh LED bulbs from four manufacturers. The procurement price was high at Rs 310 per bulb which was distributed through a subsidised model.The two-year-old Modi government has, however, changed the contours of procuring and distributing LED bulbs across the country, putting the project firmly on the fast track. With the deployment of economies of scale and roping in more manufacturers, prices of LED bulbs have become more affordable.For example, in the latest round of procurement in April 2016, under which EESL got 5 crore bulbs from 17 manufacturers, the procurement price for one 9 watt bulb came down to Rs 54.9, allowing the government to sell it between Rs 75 and Rs 100, depending on the states’ tax structures.Among the 17 manufacturers are Bajaj Electricals, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, Orient Electricals, Phillips India Ltd and Wipro Enterprises. The scale of LED growth can also be gauged by the rapidly growing turnover of EESL. From Rs 68 crore in 2014-15, the top line has grown 10-fold in the last fiscal year, according to an official in the company who did not wish to be named as audited results for 2015-16 are yet to be made public.Managing director Saurabh Kumar gives a broad outlook of the company which, in a way, reflects the NDA government’s agenda of expanding the LED programme beyond bulbs.“We have already rolled out our energy-efficient fans in parts of Andhra Pradesh. Next on our agenda is rolling out an air conditioners scheme along the same line as LED bulbs,” says Kumar, the common principles being savings for the consumer and in energy consumption. Kumar is hopeful that the LED bulbs programme will end ahead of its three-year timeframe.Also, the question arises whether, in the hurry to produce more, quality is being compromised upon. “No, not all. We have so far found only 0.31% of the LED bulbs defective. We have replaced all of those,” says Kumar, giving statistics only of the government-procured and distributed ones. According to projections, as many as 25 crore LED bulbs will be in the market in 2016-17, 15 crore of them under the government-procured scheme.Consumers, however, may still be in a state of confusion. Here’s why. In the open market, locally branded LED bulbs retail for Rs 200-300; and at the other end of the price spectrum you have the imported LED bulbs that can be picked up for as low as Rs 60. Further, some have BIS marks, others don’t. And the warranty period varies from two years to three years. Those who buy the cheapest Chinese LED, for example, don’t get any warranty at all. The intensity of brightness (measured in Lumens) varies, leading to further confusion for consumers. A 9 watt Chinese LED, for example, is half as bright as a 9 watt BIS-marked LED of an Indian manufacturer.The imported variety, meanwhile, are of two types. One is that being retailed by Indian firms like Syska LED, and the other are the cheaper unbranded ones of Chinese manufacturers. Syska LED has not participated in any one of the nine rounds of bidding for government procurement, relying solely on imported bulbs and selling at a cost much higher than government-determined prices. That raises the question whether the price will bounce back once the government exits and the industry fully takes over the LED space, tentatively by April 2019. Bajaj Electricals, one of the leading players in the LED market and contemplating an expansion of its LED manufacturing facility beyond its current unit in Nashik, does not foresee prices rising back to unaffordable levels.What most manufacturers, including Bajaj Electricals, want from the government is a reduction in the duty and tax component for their energyefficient lighting products. Also, a better method of differentiating fake LEDs from the genuine ones will be key for survival of major LED players planning an expansion. “There has to be a thrust on developing BIS standards for all LED products so as to stop spurious products from entering the Indian market”, says R Baraneetharan, a general manager in Bajaj Electricals.ET Magazine did not get a response from other manufacturers like Crompton Greaves Consumers Electricals, Philips India and MIC Electronics. In January 2015, the Modi government began the Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme or DELP, only to replace it with the much larger UJALA scheme (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) four months later. Cost-savings apart, taking the LED programme to every household has the potential for huge political paybacks. Narahari Padhi, 42, who rides his scooty for 7 km to reach the newly opened government kiosk at Sakhigopal in Puri district of Odisha, says: “I heard about this scheme of Narendra Modi only yesterday.” Will he opt for the LED bulbs? “Why not? If I am able to reduce my electricity bill!” Clearly, the nationwide LED push has all the makings of an electoral UJALA.