Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA SCHEME)
(Ministry of Power)
Launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on January 5, 2015, the Government of India’s zero subsidy Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA SCHEME) and Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) marks their sixth anniversary.
Why in News
The Union government’s Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) and LED Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP), marked their fifth anniversary on 6th January 2021.Both schemes have been spearheaded and implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power, Government of India.
With the concerted efforts towards building a robust ecosystem for LED lighting in India, these programmes have bagged global awards like the prestigious South Asia Procurement Innovation Award (SAPIA) 2017, and for the innovative use of IT and business results achieved in Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP), it won CIO 100 award in 2019.
The highly successful UJALA and SLNP have also bagged the Global Solid State Lighting (SSL) award of excellence for the transformational contribution to the LED sector, Award for High Impact Program for Energy Efficiency – CII National Award for Excellence in Energy Management 2020 and award of excellence at the 10thElets knowledge exchange summit and awards 2020.
UJALA SCHEME
Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA)
About
It was launched in 2015 with a target of replacing 77 crore incandescent lamps with LED bulbs and to nullify the high-cost of LEDs that acted as a barrier previously in the adoption of energy-efficient systems.
The scheme was implemented to set up a phase-wise LED distribution.
The objective is to promote efficient lighting, enhance awareness on using efficient equipment that will reduce electricity bills and preserve the environment.
It is the world’s largest domestic lighting project.
Achievements
Government of India since their inception. Under UJALA, EESL has distributed over 36.69 crore LED bulbs across India. This has resulted in estimated energy savings of 47.65 billion kWh per year with avoided peak demand of 9,540 MW and estimated GHG emission reduction of 38.59 million tonne CO2 per year.
Additionally, over 72 lakh LED tube lights and over 23 lakh energy efficient fans have also been distributed at affordable price under this programme.
Apart from this, the Government of India initiated the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (GSA) in 2018, which was aimed at the promotion of social harmony by appraising rural communities of various government welfare schemes and initiatives. As a part of it, villages with poor households were able to buy LED bulbs for a special price under UJALA programme.
Street Lighting National Programme
About
It was launched in 2015 and has been instrumental in replacing over 50 lakh street lights in over 500 cities in India.
Under the programme, EESL replaces the conventional street lights with LEDs at its own costs, with no upfront investment by the municipalities, thereby making their adoption even more attractive.
It is the world’s largest streetlight replacement programme.
Achievements
With SLNP, EESL has installed about 1.14 crore LED streetlights across India.
This has resulted in an estimated energy savings of 7.67 billion kWh per year with avoided peak demand of 1,280 MW and estimated GHG emission reduction of 5.29 million tonnes CO2 per year.
Moreover, there have been an estimated annual monetary savings of INR 5,210 crore in electricity bills of municipalities.
LED streetlights have been installed in various states across the country, helping generate approximately 13,000 jobs to support Make in India initiative.
It has enabled citizens to increase productivity at night and made roads safer for pedestrians and motorists due to enhanced brightness and reduced dark spots.
The power utilities of states where the installation of LEDs has been implemented save up to 50% in electricity bills.