Delighted over response on energy conservation: Government

Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday expressed satisfaction over the response received by the government from the citizens to cut down on power consumption.

"I am delighted to see the response of all the people of India in our efforts to save electricity," he said while answering a question on social networking website Facebook.

The minister said he has planned to cut down energy demand by nearly 10,000 MW in peak hours by replacing all lights in streets and homes with LED lights by 2019.

An estimated $2 billion can be saved from this move, Goyal said.

"Apart from this, we are focussing on star rated electrical appliances being encouraged and improving industrial energy efficiency to give an overall saving of about 100 billion units a year, that is 10 percent of our current consumption by 2019," he said.

He is hoping to utilise the resulting power and cash savings to light up 280 million homes that are deprived of energy.