Power ministry to sell LED bulbs at Rs.10 A day after the Nobel Prize in physics was won by the scientists who invented blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the power ministry Wednesday launched a business model enabling the sale of LED bulbs to households at Rs.10 against the market price of Rs.400. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) together with the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which is a joint venture of four central public sector undertakings in the power sector, have worked with electricity distribution companies (discoms) to develop a business model under which EESL procures LED bulbs in bulk and sells them to households at Rs.10, The first LED lamp made in India, in 2010, was sold for Rs.1,200, the ministry said. EESL has already completed a number of projects to retrofit existing streetlights to LED streetlights as well as a 750,000 LED bulb replacement project for households in Puducherry, the statement said. Increase in domestic demand would further reduce cost of LED bulbs with larger production capacities getting created in India, it said. All lighting manufacturers have established domestic manufacturing facilities for LED-based lighting system, and have started training programmes for engineers and demonstration programmes in various buildings to showcase this technology, it added. During the Durga Puja celebrations last week, a neighbourhood association in south Kolkata had erected a puja pandal that contained, and was illuminated by, 16,000 LED bulbs manufactured by a reputed multinational in India.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 15:16:55 +0000