The State Administrative Council (SAC), which met here today under the Chairmanship of Governor, N N Vohra, approved the implementation of Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) Programme in the State through Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a PSU under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. The programme, earlier called Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP), shall help in promoting energy efficiency culture across the state. The focus of this new initiative is to make the common citizen aware of the benefits of energy efficiency.Under UJALA, EESL shall provide up to 5 LED lamps of 9W each to every registered domestic consumer in the State at a highly subsidized rate of Rs 20 per LED lamp which is sold in the market for Rs 250 to Rs 300. A pack of 5 lamps shall be sold for only Rs. 100 to every registered domestic consumer. The balance amount of about Rs 77 per lamp shall be borne by the State Government as subsidy. 80 lakh LED bulbs are proposed to be distributed among about 16 lakh registered domestic consumers in the State.
This is expected to entail a subsidy of Rs 61.44 crore. Apart from the 5 subsidized LED lamps, the consumers shall be able to purchase more LED lamps from EESL, as per their requirement, at a cost much less than the obtaining price of LEDs in the market.The distribution of 80 lakh LED bulbs in the state will help reduce peak demand in the state by about 250 MW and will save energy consumption by 260 million units of electricity translating into an annual saving of about Rs 130 cr.It may be recalled that in a meeting held by Governor last month, it was decided that UJALA/DELP will be launched across the State from March 2016 in collaboration with EESL. It was also decided that Street lights in two Municipal Corporations of Jammu and Srinagar and other Municipalities across the state would be replaced with energy efficient smart LED lights with full metering and dedicated feeders/phase wires. It was further decided that EESL will undertake energy audit of government offices starting from Civil Secretariat and implement use of energy efficient LED lighting in all government buildings. With today’s approval, the realization of the goal of efficient use of electricity in the State has been put firmly on track.