Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation's push for green energy and eco-friendly power utilities is finally bearing fruit, as the civic body is looking forward to save a whopping Rs. 25 crore in electricity charges in the current financial year with LED streetlights installed within the city limits.
The move, which has already seen the corporation installing over 4.62 lakh LED streetlights so far, reduced the civic body's power consumption from Rs. 179.32 crore in July 2017 to Rs. 44.41 crore in March 2020. Moreover, the use of power-saving lights has further helped in reducing carbon dioxide emission by 281.780 tonnes annually, reports said.
A big feat by GHMC
The GHMC became the first municipal corporation in the country to take up the gigantic task of replacing the conventional street lights with the LED ones in 2017. The project, undertaken in association with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), Hyderabad, is expected to save power consumption by nearly 55 per cent.
As per an agreement signed between the two bodies, the EESL group has been given charge of the maintenance and operation of the LED streetlights in the city for a period of seven years. Last year, the corporation identified and replaced 23,680 defunct streetlights after a survey.
During the same survey, 26,000 streetlights were randomly picked up for monitoring under the command control switch system. Of these, 25,860 streetlights were found to be functioning properly, resulting in 96 per cent glowing rate, a fact uthenticated by elected corporators and other public representatives in different areas.
Automated switch-off and switch-on
As of now, the streetlights have recorded a 96 per cent glowing rate, enabling a minimum of 55 per cent reduction in power consumption compared to the glowing rate of other conventional lights recorded at 80 per cent in April 2017. At least 28,766 control switches have been fixed to operate 4,62,979 lakh streetlights.
Equipped with auto timers, these switches turn lights on automatically after sunrise, using photo sensors. If anyone tries to tamper with these switchboards or turn off lights deliberately, the officials get automatic alerts instantly.
