NEW DELHI: India’s appetite for star-labelled energy efficient products has doubled with falling prices and increased participation of private companies even as the country affirms its commitment to low carbon footprint ahead of climate change talks in Paris later this month.Production of LED (light-emitting diode) lamps that consume about 80 per cent less energy than incandescent bulbs has increased to 3 crore per month against 10 lakh a year ago, thanks to the government’s LED lamps distribution programme. Energy Efficiency Services Ltd ( EESL ), the coordinator for energy efficient programmes, is launching a similar programme for star-rated agricultural pumps and ceiling fans.The company is also facilitating state governments in floating contracts for retrofitting LED street lights and maintaining them, creating market for Energy Service Companies (ESCOs)—a concept prevalent in West but has remained a non-starter in India.The government has revised its investment estimate for energy efficient electrical equipment to around Rs 150,000 crore from Rs 74,000 crore about six years ago following the success of the LED lamps distribution programme, EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar told ET. The fresh estimate reveals an investment potential of Rs 50,000 crore in solar pumps, Rs 40,000 crore in electrical equipment like fans and ACs, Rs 35,000 crore in energy-efficient lighting and street lighting, and Rs 30,000 crore in industrial usage, he said.EESL too has scaled up its investment target 140 times to Rs 70,000 crore in the next five years from the earlier Rs 500 crore fixed about two years ago. The company has so far invested about Rs 5,000 crore. Its equity has increased to Rs 500 crore from Rs 90 crore and it proposes to raise loans from German development bank KfW, Asian Development Bank and AfD (France Development Agency).EESL, a joint venture of state-run NTPC , Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and Power Grid Corporation, cashes in on the profits that accrue to the distribution companies that purchase less electricity from generation firms due to energy savings. EESL procures LED lamps in bulk through competitive bidding and distributes them to the consumers through power distribution companies.While sectoral majors like Philips , Havells, Surya Roshni and Compact have ramped up LED production, Eveready Industries and Syska LED have ventured into the business. LED lamps production is likely to grow as the distribution programme reaches a pan-India level, resulting in prices as low as Rs 73 per unit against Rs 310 a few months back for a 7-watt LED lamp. As EESL reserves 20 per cent of the LED tenders for small firms, many companies like MIC Electronics and EcoLight LED Systems have increased capacities.The government hopes to save 85 lakh Kwh electricity consumption a day or 15,000 tonne of CO2 by replacing 77 crore conventional bulbs and CFLs with LEDs and 3.5 crore street lights over 3 years. The energy conservation programme gels well with the country’s stand on lower greenhouse emissions ahead of the Paris convention.“The government emphasis on energy efficiency, even as energy prices are at historic lows, is commendable,” said Kameswara Rao, energy leader at Pricewaterhouse-Coopers . “Also, current policies cover a wide range such as lighting, old power plants, small industries, standards & labelling, building codes, demand-side management. Together, these initiatives represent a major and credible response to reducing India's energy intensity.”Kumar said the programme for replacing conventional ceiling fans with five-star rated fans will be started with southern states. India is the largest consumer of ceiling fans in the world but the demand for energy-efficient fans or super efficient fans is very low due to price variations and lack of awareness.Improving energy efficiency is important to India’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and for optimal use of resources. The IEA calculates that India’s primary energy demand could be reduced by 200 Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent) on account of gains in energy efficiency. The energy-efficient electrical market also presents an opportunity for the government’s Make in India initiative, especially as the global push to maximise energy efficiency gets an impetus. For India, a concerted push on efficiency is climate-smart, energy-smart as well as economically smart.