Street light national programme (SLNP)

Government has launched Street Light National Programme in about 100 cities to convert 3.5 crore conventional street lights with energy efficient LED lights.

• This would result in annual energy saving of 900 crore units and the total cost savings of municipalities every year will be Rs 5,500 crore.

• The scheme/programme will be implemented by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (under the administrative control of Ministry of Power) a joint venture company of four Power Sector PSUs, envisages replacement of conventional street lights with LED lights by March, 2019. 

The objectives of the initiative are:

• To mitigate climate change by implementing energy efficient LED based street lighting

• • To reduce energy consumption in lighting which helps DISCOMs to manage peak demand
  • To provide a sustainable service model that obviates the need for upfront capital investment as well as additional revenue expenditure to pay for procurement of LED lights
  • To enhance municipal services at no upfront capital cost of municipalities
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EESL Service Model:-

• EESL replaces the conventional street lights with LEDs at its own costs and consequent reduction in energy and maintenance cost of the municipality is used to repay EESL over a period of time. 
• The contracts that EESL enters into with Municipalities are typically of 7 years duration where it not only guarantees a minimum energy saving but also provides free replacements and maintenance of lights at no additional costs to the municipalities. 
• The service model enables the municipalities to go in for the state of the art street light with no upfront capital cost and repayments to EESL are within the present level of expenditure. 
• Thus there is no additional revenue expenditure required to be incurred by the municipality for change over to smart and energy efficient LED street lights.

The advantages of LED lighting over CFLs are:

• LEDs are extremely energy efficient and consume up to 90% less power than incandescent bulbs.

• LEDs have a lifespan of up to 60,000 hours compared to 1,500 hours for incandescent bulbs.

• LEDs are solid state lighting devices that utilize semiconductor material instead of a filament or neon gas. Hence more durable than CFLs.

• LED lights are offered in a variety of base colors such as Red, Green, Blue and Amber.