Moving a step ahead towards improving its energy efficiency,Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC)has floated an Expression of Interest(EOI)for energy-saving street lights.The civic body plans to replace conventional street lights with light-emitting diodes(LEDs),which will maintain the same illumination level.With this,AMC aims to reduce its electricity cost and increase energy conservation.
Presently,street lights in the city have either conventional sodium lights or tube lights."But gradually,we will replace all the conventional with LED lights which consume lesser electricity.We will begin with replacing sodium lights and then move on to tube lights,"said municipal commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra.He also stated that AMC will initially replace street lights in west zone at one go and later focus on other zones.
A total of 18,000 street lights illuminate the roads of west zone at night.An official of the light department said,"Out of 18,000 street lights,10,000 have sodium-based lights while the remaining are tube lights."
The official further said,"Presently,there are three types of lights with different watt power in sodium lights as well-70W,150W and 250 W,which will be replaced by 45W,80W and 110W of LEDs respectively.We will thus be able to save lot of energy while maintaining the same level of illumination."This move will help AMC save 50%of the power being used up currently,he added.There will not be immediate impact on the expenditure for AMC as the cost will almost remain the same.But,within approximately three years,the electricity bill will go down.
Once the sodium lights have been replaced,AMC will float tenders for replacing tube lights with LED lights.However,AMC is likely to opt for a different model where the civic body will not have to spend too much.The agency will bear the cost of replacing and installing the lights.Against this,every month,AMC will pay around 80%of the money saved on energy consumption to the agency.
