Move aside incandescent bulbs and CFLs. With Light-emitting Diodes (LED) being touted as the next big thing in lighting, the capital has received an opportunity to host what could be the biggest demo of this futuristic technology to be conducted in a single city in Kerala.
The Energy Management Centre (EMC), the nodal agency for the Union Power Ministry’s energy conservation initiatives in the state, has submitted a proposal to the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation for installing 500 LEDs at one go in two locations.
As per the proposal, 300 of the lamps would be installed as streetlights on the NH stretch between Kazhakkoottam and Chackai and 200 around the high-profile Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple. ‘’We’ve already rolled out an LED project under which every Corporation and municipality gets 100 lamps each. Totalling 6,800 lamps (Malappuram gets 300 extra under an MP’s fund initiative), that is in all probability the biggest project of its kind in the country. But the 500-LED project must be the single biggest for a city here,’’ said EMC director K M Dhareshan Unnithan.
A proposal that has been cleared by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the Power Ministry, the 500-LED initiative is intended to be a demo project to showcase the technology. An evolving technology, good LEDs have a big edge over incandescent bulbs and Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL), as they have a burning life of 30,000 hours and above.
‘’We are waiting for the Corporation to approve the project. If Thiruvananthapuram does not want it, we will recommend another city,’’ said Unnithan. The 45-watt LEDs will replace 108-watt tube lights at the two proposed locations, saving some 65 per cent power.