Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje has said that distributing LED bulbs to domestic power consumers is an important step taken at the right time in the direction of saving electricity. She said that to speed up development the state had to be self-sufficient in energy. For this, we were needed to give up obsolete technologies and resort to the new ones, so that consumption of power could be reduced by saving even a single unit of electricity, she said.

Smt. Raje was addressing a function on the occasion of inauguration of LED Home Lighting Scheme under the Domestic Efficient Lighting Program (DELP) in the state at the CM Office on Monday. With start of this scheme, Rajasthan has become leading state of the country to take such initiative for energy saving.

The CM said that appliances and bulbs using old technology would consume more energy. So, it was the time to switch to the appliances and bulbs equipped with new latest technology. She said that, shortage of energy affected economy of the state badly, thus we were required to save energy and make its efficient use.

“Saving energy is also its production,” she said.

During the function, Smt. Raje inaugurated the LED Bulb Distribution Centres by cutting a ribbon. She handed over LED bulbs to Smt. Anita Gupta and Smt. Nirmla of Vaishali Nagar, Sarpanch of Rahori (Jamwa Ramgarh) Shri Heeralal Meena, Sarpanch of Nayala Shri Mohan Lal and Sarpanch of Kanota Shri Kamlesh Kumar.

Minister of State for Energy Shri Pushpendra Singh said that this program to provide LED bulbs to domestic consumers in the state at affordable prices had been initiated in partnership with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). He hoped that with use of LED bulbs of 7-watts each, consumption of power would drop drastically in the state and it would be a relief to the consumers.

Managing Director (MD) of EESL Shri Saurabh Kumar said that with initiation of LED bulb distribution, Rajasthan would be the leading state in energy efficiency. “We would make efforts to complete the process of providing LED bulbs to all consumers in a time-bound manner so that the target of saving energy could be achieved. The Managing Directors of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer Power Distribution Corporations of the state signed MoUs with the EESL for implementing this scheme.

Principal Secretary Energy and Chairman of the Discoms Shri Sanjay Malhotra, MDs of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ajmer Shri Anurag Bhardwaj, Smt. Aarti Dogra and Shri Hemant Gera respectively and other officials were present on this occasion.

LEDs are the most energy-efficient source of lighting as these utilize one-tenth of the energy of a normal incandescent bulb and half of the energy utilized in a Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) to produce the same amount of light. Under DELP, EESL will provide upto three 7-Watt high quality LED bulbs to each household with an upfront cash payment of 120/- each or payment of 12 monthly EMIs of Rs. 10 each with the electricity bill. About 85 lakh domestic electricity consumers would be benefited under this program. These bulbs would also be available at E-mitra counters and as a door-to-door campaign. In the market, these LED bulbs are priced between Rs. 400 to 500.

Under the LED Home Light Program, over 2.5 crore LED lights would be installed across the state. This would save about 734 million units of electricity leading to a drop in energy demand by 575 megawatts. This would cause a saving of Rs. 230 crore to all three power Discoms of the state.

Jaipur, May 4 2015