LED lights to help India save $2 billion in four years: Piyush Goyal

“I hope to utilise these savings to power
the homes of 280 million Indians deprived
of energy access, sadly, 67 years after
independence,” Goyal said.
NEW DELHI: The government is planning
to save $2 billion in four years by cutting
down on energy usage by 10,000 MW
during peak hours by promoting LED
lights, Power, Coal and Renewable Energy
Minister Piyush Goyal said today.
“The plan is to cut down energy demand
by nearly 10,000 MW in peak hours by
changing to LED lights in street and
homes by 2019. This itself will save
power to the tune of $2 billion,” Goyal
said in a question and answer session
with Facebook users.
Apart from this, the government is
focusing on star rated appliances and
improving industrial energy efficiency for
an overall saving of about 100 billion
units a year, that is 10 per cent of
country’s current consumption, he said.
“I hope to utilise these savings to power
the homes of 280 million Indians deprived
of energy access, sadly, 67 years after
independence,” Goyal said.
Apart from lowering LED lights prices,
Goyal said the government is taking steps
to boost rooftop solar power production.
“We are hoping to scale the demand for
rooftop solar and in the next seven years –
we have plans to roll out 40,000 MW for
rooftop solar, which is massive.
Concurrently, we will start procurement
through reverse bidding which should
help bring down the prices. To what
extent the prices will come down, I cannot
say at this point,” he said.
On forecast of a deficient monsoon, the
Minister said, “Obviously a deficient
monsoon is a matter of concern to all
policymakers. We are preparing ourselves
to increase coal-based power generation
significantly, just like we did last year due
to delayed monsoon, so that it can
compensate for the lower hydel power
and meet the increased demand of a
agrarian pumps to provide water.”
Further, based on the need assessment in
different areas, supplementary public
works will be initiated to provide alternate
employment, he said adding fortunately,
the food stocks are at comfortable levels.
On huge transmission loss, Goyal said the
problem was more sever in eastern and
northern parts.
“In states like Bihar, it’s upwards of 40
per cent. We have started two new
schemes for rural and urban areas
focused on upgrading the T&D
infrastructure by feeder segregation of
powerlines to farms, extensive metering
along transmission corridors, smart
meters, and advanced communication
systems to integrate consumption data
with billing so that we can address this
problem of power theft and distribution
losses,” he said.
Goyal also said government is taking
comprehensive steps to check coal mafia
operating in mines including installation
of CCTVs to boost output especially in
eastern region mines