NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government's programme to get consumers to replace less efficient CFL or incandescent lights with LED bulbs at a discount has reduced Delhi’s peak load by 145 mw and creating savings of over Rs 61 lakh daily in power bill.

The Prime Minister had announced the campaign, called Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP), on January 5. The programme was rolled out on June 1 in Delhi and will close on December 31. Since its launch, 43 lakh bulbs have been distributed among nearly 11 lakh households in Delhi, resulting in an estimated daily energy saving of 1.5 million units.

The scheme is also yielding environmental dividend. Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), the nodal agency implementing the scheme in the participating states, reckons a reduction in daily greenhouse emissions equivalent to 1,259 tonne of CO2 in Delhi.

Power minister Piyush Goyal has projected a target of distributing six crore LED bulbs through the DELP scheme. The government has already distributed about 3.88 crore LED bulbs. This has reduced the countrywide peak demand by 1,292 mw and saving Rs 5,000 crore in costs.

The scheme is also estimated to save more than 11 million units of power and brought down the daily greenhouse emissions by 11,288 tonne of CO2.

In a related development, the renewable energy ministry has stopped subsidy on CFL-based solar lighting system to encourage the use of the LED version.

Under the DELP scheme, consumers in Delhi can avail of up to 10 LED bulbs per domestic household on upfront payment. These technically superior LEDs are available at a discounted price of Rs 93 each, against a market price of around Rs 350.

Each LED bulb helps a consumer save anywhere between Rs 160 to Rs 400 every year and has a life expectancy of 25,000 hours, thus making the cost recovery lesser than a year.

The bulbs are available at distribution kiosks across Delhi and the list of the same is available on www.delp.in. For availing the scheme, the customer needs to provide a copy of the latest electricity bill, along with a copy of ID proof.