ULBs enjoy savings, fail to clear dues 

LED lighting installed by EESL helped urban local bodies save ₹149 crore annually in power bills

The Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department has made savings of up to 3.74 Mwh power, including peak power demand of 75 MW, with savings in terms of money being ₹149 crore a year thanks to conversion of conventional lights to energy saving LED lights of up to 28.8 lakh till date.

It also amounts to preventing little more than three lakh tonnes of carbondioxide being released into the air. Hyderabad and environs top the list with about 14.30 lakh lights replaced, and last is Medak with about 4,800 lights changed. Adilabad with 2.37 lakh, Karimnagar 1.84 lakh, and Nizamabad with 1.66 lakh replacements are among the top as also the State power distribution firms to the tune of 4.68 lakh.

These replacements were done with the help of the Ministry of Power’s Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under its ‘Unnat Jyoti’ by affordable LED lights for All (UJALA) scheme launched seven years ago. Under this scheme, even energy efficient fans are also being supplied to the domestic consumers to replace the conventional and inefficient products, informed senior officials.

Across the country about nine crore consumers are said to have benefitted from the scheme with over 36.70 crore LED bulbs, 72.09 lakh LED tubelights and 23.41 lakh energy efficient fans distributed resulting in estimated energy savings of 47.98 billion kWh per year, reduction of 39 million tonnes CO2 per year and estimated annual monetary savings of ₹19,156 crore in consumer electricity bills.

However, the Telangana government has realised that the municipal bodies have not been releasing the necessary funds to the EESL with the arrears crossing ₹90 crore from the 138 of the 141 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), forcing the municipal authorities to alert the commissioners concerned to release funds without any further delay.

Total billing was to the tune of about ₹220 crore and around ₹130 crore has been paid thus far with more than a dozen municipal bodies having dues of ₹2 crore or more each. Topping the list is Khammam with ₹5.15 crore and other high dues municipal bodies are Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation with ₹4.89 crore, Nalgonda - ₹4.64 crore, Mahabubnagar - ₹4.17 crore, Miryalguda - ₹2.39 crore, Suryapet - ₹2.16 crore, Badangpet - ₹2.65 crore, Armoor - ₹2.33 crore, Kamareddy - ₹2.57 crore, Karimnagar - ₹2.36 crore, Jalpally - ₹2.13 crore and Sangareddy - ₹2.05 crore, informed senior officials.