LED streetlights projects in city doomed

LED streetlights projects in city doomed

The project of LED streetlights in the city appears a doomed endeavour for all practical purposes, notwithstanding the tall claims by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) about power savings and efficiency.

Complaints about non-glowing streetlights swarm all the grievance platforms of GHMC., including social media, and the corporation routinely forwards the same to the officials of the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which is a joint venture of all public sector units under the Ministry of Power, and responsible for implementation of LED installation programme across the States.

More than five years ago, in partnership with EESL, the GHMC had replaced all the conventional street lamps with LEDs (Light Emitting Diode), promising better visibility and power conservation.

More than 4.5 lakh conventional bulbs were replaced with the LEDs up to 2020. Together with the newly installed ones, there are now 5.35 lakh LED streetlights in the city now, as per the official records.

The project was promoted and implemented by EESL in Hybrid Annuity model, under which GHMC’s payments are based on the number of units saved through LED lights. Accordingly, the monthly bill comes roughly close to ₹7 crore, share officials. However, the bill payment hinges upon 98% glow rate, and the present rate is a far cry from this.

“The corporation is using a dashboard to calculate the glow rate, which does not show dynamic figures. It shows what is fed into the system from time to time by operators, which is not a scientific method to calculate,” says citizen activist Harish Daga.

The actual glow rate, he says, is lower than 70%, and claims that never during the last five year period had the glow rate matched the set standard, yet the GHMC ended up paying huge sums to EESL.