SHILLONG: The Deputy Commissioner, West Khasi Hills District has appealed to all citizen of the district to avail benefits under UJALA Scheme and help in conserving energy. He informed that UJALA Scheme aims at promoting the use of energy efficient lighting solutions in India through sale of LED bulbs to domestic consumers.
Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) procures high quality 9 watt LED bulbs from leading manufactures and in turn sells them to the consumers at a rate much lower than the market price.
LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) have many advantages over the conventional incandescent bulbs and even the CFL bulbs. A 9W EESL LED bulb costs only Rs 70 against the market price is 200-300 Rs and a 20 W LED tube light costs just Rs. 220 which sells in market at more than Rs. 500.
Life Expectancy of LED bulbs is 50000 hour as opposed to just 1200 hours of incandescent bulbs. They are 10 times energy efficient and are unbreakable, have zero mercury and environmentally safe. The bulbs will carry a technical warranty of 3 years against any manufacturing defect. The consumers will be able to obtain replacement bulbs in exchange of non – functioning bulbs during the warranty period. Each consumers of MePDCL will be provided with a maximum of 10 bulbs during the distribution period upon production of valid Government ID/electricity bill.
Total number of bulbs distributed all over India tills date is 25, 17,03,757 resulting in presumptive savings of Rs. 13075 crore per year and 6544 MW energy. In Meghalaya ,LED bulbs penetration is still very low. A Kiosk has been set up in the DC office Nongstoin for easy availability of LED bulbs. Many more kiosks are planned in the coming days at block level including one at Nongstoin MePDCL bill collection center. Efforts are on to on board the CSCs also.
West Khasi Hills has one of the least penetrations as far as LED is concerned. People, especially in rural areas burn incandescent bulb entire day resulting in huge electricity losses.