Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had about 4.209 Lakhs of street lights, consisting of 40W (R-25W) tube lights, 70W (R-35W), 150W (R-75W) & 250W HPSV, 250W (R-110W) & 400W (R-200W) MH and LED lights of various wattages. The total connected load is about 77.5 MW. As a part of energy efficient street lighting program, GHMC has replaced old conventional fixtures with LED lamps under Energy Service Company (ESCO) model through Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). It is a Shared Savings Model type venture, to replace the outdated High Pressure Sodium Vapour (HPSV) lights, Fluorescent Tube lights, Metal Halide lights with new LED lights.
Siri Exergy carried out the Baseline Energy Audit and Post Implementation Study of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) during year 2018-19. The investment of Rs. 270 Crores was done by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL) under ESCO model. The total number of Street lights were about 4.2 Lakh conventional lights with annual Energy consumption of 240.7 MU and Energy Bill of Rs.180 Crores
(2016-17).
Siri Exergy carried out the Base line energy audit of 2500 switching points, by measuring Energy, Lux levels, Number of lights glowing etc. In the post implementation also the same measurements were carried out for the same locations and the savings were quantified.
This is the success story of ULB, where there is energy savings of 48 MW (61%) in demand, about Rs. 85 Crores/year worth saving on the Actual Bills. It was also the world’s largest single street lighting LED project of its kind.
This project was Implemented by EESL under ESCO Model by investing about Rs.270 Crores. Siri Exergy has done the 3rd party baseline Energy audit and Post Implementation Monitoring & Verification Audit
Pre Implementation Status
Energy Base Line:
The following table gives the population of conventional Street lights of different types such as Tube lights and HPSV. The total connected load of 4.209 lakhs lights worked out to be 67.84 MW.
Projected Load with 100% Glowing:
The connected load was 67.84 MW, where the measured load at 100% glowing is 77.591 MW. The measured load is higher than the connected load due to power consumption by the ballasts and also due to the leakage current etc.
Guaranteed Savings under ESCO Model
The total investment cost is about Rs. 270 Crores to replace 4.2 lakhs odd street lights. Since, GHMC was not having the money, they wanted to implement this project, under ESCO model through Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), without any initial investment. EESL offered guaranteed savings of 55%, and wanted to recover their investment in 7 years period.
The following table gives the Guaranteed savings in Electrical Energy along with expected reduction in Energy cost and GHG emission reduction.
Project Implementation
The conventional lights were replaced, to get equivalent light. In addition to replacing lights, the switching points are also replaced with Computer Controlled Monitoring Systems (CCMS) and also Dash Board is developed.
The main features of CCMS are:
• GPS
• Fault Monitoring
• Remote Control and Scheduling
• Alert Notification
• Flexible Dimming Controls
• Power Metering
• Burn Hours Monitoring & Reporting
• Local Intelligence for faster response times and better performance
• Local Data Storage in case of communications link failure
Dashboard:
GHMC developed Dashboard, and the Dashboard gives, the online data of actual number of lights on/off, the actual load and the number of lights off and also alerts about any maintenance related data.
Field Measurements:
Siri Exergy has carried out measurements during night time, the actual power consumption and also the lux levels for about 2500 switching points.
Same measurements repeated for the same switching points after project implementation and energy savings, lux level improvement & glowing % etc monitored and extrapolated the savings for entire GHMC.
The following table gives the energy savings for one of the street in Secunderabad. The actual savings are 63.56%, against the guaranteed savings of 55%.
Overall Results of the project
The total project took almost one year to complete and the following table gives the overall summary of the project after implementation.
It can be seen that the load has reduced from 77.59 MW to 29.72 MW, a savings of 47.86 MW, which is 61% reduction, against the guaranteed savings of 55%.
The Actual electricity bill savings of Rs.85.26 Crores/year and additionally maintenance cost reduction of another Rs.30 Crores/year. The total savings are more than Rs. 100 Crores/year. Thus this is very successful Energy Efficiency project, without any initial investment.
Here we enumerated multi benefits by different stakeholders of this unique project.
Benefit to GHMC
- No Initial Investment
- Bill has reduced by Rs 85 crores/year. In addition Maintenance cost has been reduced by Rs.30 Crores
- Street Lights Glowing percentage has increased from 78% to 98%
- Lux level has been improved by 60%, when compared to HPSV lamps
- Street light related complaints have reduced
- Total monitoring system is automated through CCMS and online Dash Board created.
EESL
- Investment of Rs 270 crores will be recovered in 7 years.
- Yearly EMI x 7. So, EESL will receive almost double their investment.
LED street light manufactures
- About 22 vendors have supplied 4.209 lakh LED lights.
- Vendors such as Phillips, Crompton, Bajaj have been hugely benefitted.
Government
- Due to the huge energy savings, the saved energy can be supplied to other sectors like Industry at higher tariff.
- There is avoided investment towards new power plants.
Public
- People are getting good lighting (visibility has improved)
- Less number of complaints
- Lesser Power Breakdowns
Consultant / M & V Auditors / Energy Auditors
- Project consultancy fees
- More business opportunities in future
Global (Benefits to Environment)
- Due to reduction in energy consumption GHG emissions have been reduced.
- These can be sold in an international market through Carbon Credits under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
Uniqueness of the project & Conclusion
- This is the World’s single largest LED Street Lighting Project
- Load Reduction of 77.6 MW to 29.7 MW ( 49 MW) – 61%
- Energy Bill Reduction of Rs. 85 Crore/year
- In addition, Rs.30 Crores Savings in Annual Maintenance
- Lux Level improvement of 60%
- Glowing % improvement from 77% to 97%
- GHG Emission Reduction of 1,00,889 T CO2
- Complaints have reduced drastically form Public
- Above all Benefits without Initial Investment of Rs.270 Crore’s under ESCO model
- This is a proven case study that can be replicated not only in India, but also worldwide
In this project, 4.2 Lakh old street lights have been replaced with LED lamps. The total investment of about Rs. 270 Crores was invested by EESL under Energy Service Company (ESCO) model. Under this ESCO model, the project is implemented, based on Shared Energy Savings Model to recover the initial investment made by the ESCO company over a period of 7 years. For Monitoring and Verification ( M&V) of the savings by this project, Central Control and Monitoring System (CCMS) have been installed. For automatic online monitoring and also for switch off and switch on, the systems are based on real time clock.
Subramanya, The author is the Director of Siri Exergy & Carbon Advisory Services (P) Ltd., Hyderabad, India
