Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will complete replacement of mercury street lamps with LED models installing an additional 692,000 LED lamps around Taiwan by the end of 2016 at a procurement budget of NT$5.49 billion (US$175 million). An open-bid is scheduled for the third quarter of 2015.
Taiwan-based LED street lamp suppliers, including Everlight Electronics, Lite-On Technology, Delta Electronics and Leadray Energy, are expected to participate in the open-bid.
While local governments have begun replacing mercury street lamps with LED models with MOEA subsidies, MOEA announced technical specifications for government-procured LED street lamps in February 2015.
The procurement will be based on an energy-saving guarantee model, that is, the gap between actual cost for installing an LED street lamp and MOEA-offered subsidies will be covered by the saving in power costs. Local governments will pay LED street lamp suppliers in installments over a few years.
In related news, state-run Taiwan Power Company has offered 6-7 open-bid projects to procure LED light tubes at a budget of about NT$3 million for each project, but winning quotes have been as low as NT$1.4-1.5 million due to intense competition.
