In a significant development on the energy efficiency front, the Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) entered into an agreement on Monday with the Government of India (GoI) for replacing 10 lakh conventional street lights with LED lights in 7,024 village panchayats in the initial phase.
Panchayat Raj Commissioner B. Ramanjaneyulu, A.P State Energy Efficiency Development Corporation (APSEEDCO) CEO and MD A. Chandra Sekhara Reddy and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (ESSL) Chief General Manager Jaspal Singh signed the agreement in the presence of Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar and Principal Secretary (PR and Rural Development) K.S. Jawahar Reddy among other officials at the Secretariat in Velagapudi.
According to an official release, the villages will be able to save around ₹165 crore without any upfront investment from the State government. The EESL is going to invest ₹245 crore on the project which is targeted to be completed in nine months. The EESL will also provide free repair and maintenance of streetlights for 10 years.
Water pumps mooted
Mr. Dinesh Kumar congratulated the parties on signing the pact and suggested that a similar model of replacing the drinking water pumps with energy-efficient ones.
Through a message that was read out by Mr. Jawahar Reddy, Minister of PR and Information Technology Nara Lokesh said that he was confident that the success story of installing LED street lights in cities and towns would happen in the case of LED street lighting project in rural areas.
Through a Centralised Control and Monitoring System, the lights can be switched on and off depending on seasonal conditions. The EESL will record and analyse the energy consumption data of the lighting systems during the contract period for evaluating the energy savings.
