“About 3 lakh more Smart LED Streetlights to be installed in all 38 districts of Bihar.”

 RK Singh, the Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, has dedicated 4,611 smart and energy-efficient LED lights to the people of Ara in Bihar. These LED lights have been installed in a record time of just three weeks under the union government’s Street Light National Programme (SLNP). Ara Municipal Corporation is expected to save 27 lakh kWh energy/year, and Rs 13.6 crore over seven years.

“It is a moment of great pride and joy to dedicate the smart, future-ready and energy-efficient LED streetlights to the people of Ara. These lights will not only illuminate the streets but also enable better and safe mobility for the citizens. I commend the efforts of Ara Municipal Corporation and EESL for their relentless work to complete the installation of smart LED street lights in a record time. I am sure such commitment and effort will be replicated across Bihar,” the minister said while inaugurating on March 17.

He added, “The government is working effortlessly to integrate centre, state and the industry through this programme. This collaboration is leading to better opportunities for consumers to enable savings as well as help the nation towards energy sufficiency and cleaner environment.”

SLNP is the world’s largest streetlight replacement programme being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. The Government of Bihar had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in December 2017 with EESL to retrofit and install approximately 3 lakh conventional street lights with LEDs in all 38 districts. Within a record time of only three weeks, EESL has replaced 4,611 conventional lights with LEDs and completed the infrastructure work for segregation of street light circuit from normal electricity distribution circuit in the city.

As a part of this drive, EESL is collaborating with all 143 ULBs in 38 districts of Bihar, including 12 nagar nigams, 46 nagar parishads and 85 nagar panchayats. Once all these conventional street lights are replaced with LEDs, these LED lights will help the ULBs as well as the nation to save over 7 crore deemed units of energy annually, with an avoided peak demand of 17 MW. The retrofitting drive will also lead to an annual reduction of over 57,400 tonnes of CO2 playing a crucial role in India’s climate goals.

These ‘smart lights’ are connected through a web-based monitoring system that enables remote operations and additional operational savings. EESL has installed 89 panels of Centralised Control and Monitoring System (CCMS) with GIS mapping for remote control and monitoring of street lights.

The procurement price of the LED streetlights has reduced from Rs. 135/watt to Rs. 70/watt due to mass procurement by EESL making LEDs affordable and accessible. EESL makes the entire upfront investment in retrofitting the streetlights. Municipalities pay EESL from the savings in energy and maintenance cost over seven years. EESL aims to create market innovations through solutions-driven approach and novel business model of zero-subsidy, zero-capex and pay-as-you-save. EESL also undertakes social audits in all states post completion of the project, the ministry said in a statement.

EESL’s procurements conform to BIS specification and carry a seven-year warranty against technical defects. EESL conducts appropriate quality checks right from the bidding stage to the field level. This has resulted in the LEDs’ overall technical fault being less than 2% in over 50 lakh lights installed by EESL in the country. “EESL has maintained an uptime of 97% for all street lights across the country, it added.