LED bulbs procurement price drops to Rs 38 under DELP scheme

The procurement price of LED bulbs has fallen further to Rs 38 per unit from Rs 54.90 under government's Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP), and it is expected to reduce the final retail price by Rs 15.

At present these LED bulbs are being distributed at price between Rs 75-100 per unit by various power distribution utilities across the country depending on the state levies.

"The tender for supply of five crore 9W LED bulbs were oped today by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. The lowest price bid was Rs 38 per unit which is expected to reduce the final retail price by Rs 15 per unit," a source said.
 

The procurement cost of LED bulbs had fallen to Rs 54.90 per unit from Rs 64.41 in the last round of bidding in March this year.

Last year in September, Power Minister Piyush Goyal had said, "The government is looking to bring down the price of LED bulb to Rs 44 per unit under bulk purchases through competitive bidding."

EESL has already distributed 15.24 crore LED bulbs, which will help saving help in saving of 54.24 million units of electricity per day and Rs 21.69 crore daily.

These 15.24 crore bulbs will help avoiding around 4,000 MW peak demand of electricity and reduce 43,941 tonnes of carbon dioxide per day.

Under DELP, the government wants to replace all the 77 crore incandescent bulbs sold in India with LED bulbs. This will result in reduction of 20,000 MW load, energy savings of 105 billion KWh and Green House Gas (GHG) emissions savings of 80 million tonnes every year.

The annual saving in electricity bills will be Rs 40,000 crore, considering an average tariff of Rs 4 per kWh.

Each LED bulb helps a consumer save anywhere between Rs 160 to Rs 400 every year and has a life expectancy of 25,000 hours, thus making the cost recovery lesser than a year.

For availing the scheme, the customer needs to provide a copy of the latest electricity bill, along with a copy of ID proof to discoms.

The LED bulbs are also made available through other channels by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the scheme last year in January.