Though more than 80 per cent of the task of fixing light-emitting diode (LED) lights in the city limits, including Anakapalle and Bhimunipatnam, is complete, GVMC is in no position to measure the conservation in electricity that has been achieved.
To quantify the conservation, the Centrally-Controlled Monitoring Station (CCMS) has to be in place. The work on CCMS is likely to be taken up during February. Once the work is launched, it will take two months for completion. It includes linking up of 4,000 operational points, say sources.
Municipal Commissioner Pravin Kumar has indicated that the work on CCMS may be completed by March/April.
Installation of LED lights in the city has been taken up by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs of the Ministry of Power with the Government of India.
Power consumption
LED lighting is expected to save up to 50 per cent of the energy consumption. GVMC spends about Rs.17 crore on power bills for street- lighting and another Rs.7 crore on maintenance. EESL recovers the cost from the savings.
EESL has taken up installation of LED lights in the city after cyclone Hudhud damaged majority of the streetlights. The work initially began in November on the national highway and the Beach Road. The first consignment was a modest 1900 fixtures.
Sources say 74,000 of the 92,000 streetlights in the city were replaced by Monday. Work in all the wards and Anakapalle and Bhimunipatnam has begun. The entire work (installation of all lights) will be completed by the end of February, he says.
