Shaleen Agrawal

New Delhi: The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the government body with a goal to ensure energy conservation in the country, has firmed up plans to provide the low-electricity consuming compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) at the price of a normal electric bulb.

“We propose to disseminate 40 crore CFLs across the country in the 11th Five Year Plan (that began April 1, 2007).

The installation of such CFLs, in place of the existing light bulbs, will save 6000-10,000 mw of electricity consumption,” a BEE official told DNA Money, requesting anonymity.

A 15-watt CFL consumes only one-fourth of electricity of what an incandescent lamp (common electric bulb) does, and disseminates same amount of visible light (luminance).

The average life of CFL is also high at about eight to 15 times than that of incandescent lamp. The initial purchase price for a 15-watt CFL, however, is high at about Rs 120 against Rs 15 for a 60-watt incandescent lamp, and hence is a barrier for people buying it.

“We will distribute 13 lakh CFLs for Rs 15 each at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Yamunanagar in Haryana (6.5 lakh CFLs each) in a pilot project beginning next month,” the BEE official said.

“The initial cost of distributing the CFLs at a price equivalent to the incandescent lamp will be borne by the manufacturers and traders,” the official said, adding that the BEE, as a nodal agency, will monitor the entire project  and will find out the amount of electricity saved after installing such lamps.

The manufacturers and traders will be allocated carbon credits, which can be traded in the market for money, to compensate for the price differential between two kinds of lamps, said the official.

Carbon credits trading is a concept under which low carbon emitting entities can sell the “credits” thus earned to those who need to emit more than the permissible limit. The buyer of such carbon credits then can either use those to emit more energy or can bank those for future use.

“We will monitor the activity (after CFLs installation) through a smart electricity meter, which will tell us how much of electricity has been saved after replacement of the bulbs,” the official said, adding, “We will  thus allocate carbon credits to the companies engaged in the programme with us, which they can trade to make up for their cost.”

Some companies have tied up with domestic and foreign banks and financial institutions as well to fund the initial cost of selling CFLs at the price equivalent to an incandescent lamp, the electric products manufacturer Indo Asian Fusegear Ltd’s chairman and managing director V P Mahendru told DNA Money.

“We are also in talks with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to distribute CFLs under the said project,” Mahendru said.

There is, however, scope of reducing the price of CFLs by reducing import duties for material required in making such lamps, Mahendru said.

“Though the government has reduced excise duties marginally, but there is yet scope for reducing duties further,” Mahendru added.

Source : DNAIndia