First rural LED street lighting project to take off in Andhra Pradesh

Central government will be retrofitting 10 lakh conventional street lights with energy efficient LED lights in Gram Panchayats of 7 districts in Andhra Pradesh. This will be India’s first rural LED Street Lighting Project.

More Details about India’s first Rural LED Street Lighting Project in Andhra Pradesh:

The project will be carried out through the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power.

• Gram panchayats of the districts of Guntur, Prakasham, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa, Ananthapur and Chittoor will be covered under the first phase of the project.
• Post this replacement drive in rural areas, gram panchayats will cumulatively save approximately 147 million units of electricity annually which will eventually lead to reduction of 12 crore tonnes of CO2.
• French Development Agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD) will fund the entire upfront capital cost of this project.
• EESL will look after annual maintenance and warranty replacement in these gram panchayats for a period of 10 years.

About Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP):

Street Light National Programme (SLNP) was launched by Government of India in January 2015, with an aim to replace 3.5 crore conventional street lightswith energy efficient LED lights.

• This replacement drive will result in saving of 9,000 million units annually, which translates into savings of Rs. 5500 crore.
• Energy Efficiency Services Limited(EESL), a joint venture company of four Power Sector PSUs (NTPC Limited, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and POWERGRID) has been designated as the implanting agency for this programme.
• Under this programme, EESL replaces the conventional street lights with LEDs at its own costs. Gains accrued to municipality due to reduction in energy and maintenance cost is used to repay EESL over a period of time.