City may take up Rs 300 cr energy conservation project

Power-surplus West Bengal is likely to take up a Rs 300-crore energy conservation measure for street lights of Kolkata, making it the country's largest project in coverage.
"West Bengal has been very progressive state in energy conservation and soon expected to sign a contract worth Rs 300 crore to switch three lakh street lights to LED lamps," Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) Managing Director Saurabh Kumar said here today.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an energy sustainability seminar organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).
"Covering three lakh street lights of the metropolis is the country's largest, probably the world's too, in terms of coverage of street lights. The project envisage switching to smart LEDs from sodium vapour lamps," Kumar said.

He said a pilot project has already been undertaken and "we hope to sign the deal after the elections," he added.
EESL will provide entire capex to replace the street lamps and the payback for the nodal agency will come from the savings it would achieve from lower energy bill.

Once, the street lights are replaced by new smart LEDs that will save 50-55 per cent of energy, the three lakh street lights can be controlled and monitored centrally as the lamp posts will have GSM or RFID based connectivity.
In other words, the KMC can switch on and switch off the lights and even dim it at late night to save more.

EESL is promoted by state-owned entities under the ministry of power and was entrusted to implement and popularise energy conservation projects.
A collaborative research between Jadavpur University and the University of Leeds has found that 10 per cent of the city's total income is spent on energy bill.
"The annual energy and maintenance bill is Rs 125 crore. With this project, the annual outgo for the government will be lower may be by Rs 10-15 crore without any spending. The bill then would be fixed for the next seven to nine years, even if the power tariff is revised upwards," he said.

Bengal Chamber president Kallol Datta said EESL is a unique model in which the owner will not have to spend and contribute to society in conserving.
"For this reason we have also decided to take our energy conservation step with EESL for BCCI. We will be able to conserve energy without spending any penny," Datta said.