According to a report by Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association of India (ELCOMA), the lighting industry is expected to reduce energy consumption for lighting from the present 18 per cent of total power consumption to 13 per cent by 2020 by introducing more energy efficient products and working more closely with the government to execute various schemes and awareness programs. LED lights have carved a niche in the Indian lighting market owing to several advantages over conventional lighting. LED lights are set for growth over the next few decades.
Energy efficiency awareness program is fueling the growth of LED. Acceptance of LEDs is reflected in progress of the lighting industry in India registering a growth of US$ 29.6 billion in 2016 to around US$ 33.1billion in 2017. This industry expected to reach US$ 37 billion in the year 2018. This is because of affordable pricing of the LED products.
According to Raju Bista, Managing Director, Surya Roshni, “The Indian LED lighting industry is on a rapid growth path and expected to grow tremendously on account of the demand for a smart or connected lifestyle and for energy-efficient products. The market for energy-efficient products such as LED lights is bound to grow. LED market is bound to multiply manifold as all the conventional products such as lamps, tubes, down lights, street lights, outdoor lighting products are being changed to LED based lighting products.”
LED lighting provides cost effective solutions with innovative design in the commercial space.Infrastructural development such as roads, offices, real estate, commercialisation, increasing disposable income and growing preference of people towards energy efficient and innovative lighting solutions will be accelerating growth in coming years.
Gurumukh Uttamchandani, Executive Director, Syska Group, says, “Companies like Syska are focused towards providing customised LED products for the commercial sector. Due to the strong government support and aggressive promotion by the manufacturers, there is a growth of smart LED systems at both local and international level.”
Government initiatives
The roll out of smart cities project has generated potential for the lighting sector. Congenial government initiatives coupled with declined prices has brought about a sea change in the sector. In order to cut emissions, the government has set the target of distribution of 770 million LEDs by March 2019 across 100 cities under the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA). This is one of the largest LED distribution programs in the world.
Moreover, with the objective of achieving energy saving of typically 50 per cent, the government has initiated the replacement of India’s 14 million conventional street lights with Smart LED variants under Street Lighting National Program (SLNP) by 2019. Under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), 27.3 million LED bulbs have to be distributed to BPL households. According to a statement issued by Ministry of Power, over 2.1 million conventional streetlights have already been replaced with LED streetlights across the country.
Anil Bhasin, Executive Vice President, Havells India, informs, “Adding to the growth would be government’s flagship programs such as Rural Electrification and ‘Power For All’ along with the investment to be made in the ‘Smart Cities’ program. Another reason of rapid growth of lighting sector is the government’s drive in implementing LED lighting across the nation which will help the LED Lighting industry to grow in a good pace.”
Raju Bista, of Surya Roshni also asserts, “Other drivers are the Smart Cities project, and the increasing demand for a smart, connected lifestyle and energy efficiency measures. Being energy efficient remaining the core principle of growing India, we have converted our CFL production facilities to LED manufacturing facilities for contributing towards the nation’s growth by energy conservation.”
Emerging Technologies
With the advent of technology and innovation along with the growing use of internet, automation has changed the landscape of lighting industry with the overall lighting experience with respect to control, monitoring or sensing and connectivity and improved aesthetics.
For instance, in India, to curb the energy wastage, a team of students from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has developed an intelligent lighting system that ensures the street-lights illuminate to 100 per cent brightness once the sensors on the lighting system detects vehicular movement. Otherwise the lights go dim by 30 per cent. It is a fully automated lighting system. i-lighting is an integrated system with a control module, sensor module and LED driver.
According to Bista of Surya Roshni, the latest technology in the LED products is DMOV technology. This technology helps to fight high voltage and electric surges in rural areas. The LED lights can operate at a low voltage and makes a popular option where high voltage supply is limited. The lights are energy-efficient and consumes less electricity than a traditional light source thus saving costs. Safer than the traditional lights, ergonomically designed LEDs, longer lifespan of about 25,000 hours or more, durable product with inbuilt DMOV technology which protects the product in case of voltage surge or fluctuations.
Talking about digitisation in LED, he elaborates, “Our LED lamps are outfitted with a Central Control Monitoring System (CCMS), which allows remote monitoring and operation of individual lights or a group of lights. The system sends alerts for each light that needs attention, reducing the chances of failure and sudden repair and can help us to do light scheduling based on day times, day light and power saving needs. It can generate reports and MIS for decision making. This enables an additional energy saving.”
Leading brands are paving the way with smart LED bulbs and switches that connect to WiFi and offer app, button and voice controls over the positioning, brightness, warmth and colour of connected bulbs. The major technology behind smart connected homes is Internet of Things (IoT). Currently, smart tech is adapting to seamlessly integrate into smart home systems.
Further, Power over Ethernet (PoE) lighting uses an Ethernet cable to power light fixtures (luminaires). The Ethernet cable transmits data between the fixture and the control software. PoE technology has application in indoor lighting owing to its benefits like energy savings, space optimisation, productivity enhancement and security alerts. Sensors on light fittings of PoE give information about energy consumption. Moreover, features like automatic on or off, movement detection, occupancy alarms, and daylight harvesting lead to energy saving and productivity.
Havells India has elevated its lighting product range using PoE. Bhasin of Havells informs, “Our product innovations in Connected Lighting enable integration of all lighting amenities with other facilities such as telephony, Internet, electricity, HVAC and building automation using PoE. We also offer a centrally-controlled monitoring system (CCMS) which enables remote-monitoring and scheduled operations of the lights, energy analysis, fault monitoring etc. This can again be integrated to water, sewage and other facility services. In the outdoor lighting segment, our smart street lighting LED solutions help save thousands of watts.”
Keeping in pace with the latest emerging trends, Syska has introduced smart home LED products like Syska Smart Table Lamp and Syska Smart bulb compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google assistant.
Syska Smart Table Lamp having long lasting life (up to 30,000 hours) and 90 per cent energy saving has features like 3 Stages Dimmable that can adjust brightness according to requirement and mood with the touch of a button suiting to lighting needs. Its Feather Touch Control helps to switch it on or off, control its colour temperature, and its dimness (brightness) for a seamless experience. It has hands-free control with Alexa. The 2-mood setting in Syska Smart Table Lamp allows the user to fix lighting requirements between reading and night.
Further, Syska Smart Bulb connects user to WiFi and controls every aspect of lighting from his or her smartphone or tablet. It helps user with setting the light of his or her home as he wants from anywhere. In addition to using voice commands, users can also download the Syska Smart Home app to control the lights. The App gives the user the option to choose shade of light from a spectrum of 3 million colours. User can also set alarms of switching on and switching off lights to create his or her own preformatted lighting theme.
Further, advancement in technology has brought application of Bluetooth mesh in lighting industry, a completely new technology, thus eliminating the need for the traditional lighting control box. It enables the luminaires in buildings to be connected into a grid. In this, hundreds of devices, such as lights, switches and sensors are able to communicate with each other over long distances. It is a mesh topology, so the enabled luminaires don’t need to be in direct radio range as messages are relayed from device to device at the speed of light.
Human Centric Lighting (HCL)
Lighting technologies continue to evolve, giving greater freedom and flexibility in how lighting is applied and controlled in the workplace. The impact of lighting on human beings, and its effect upon emotions, well-being and productivity is the subject of numerous ongoing studies, as humans spend most of their time awake indoors. These are apt places to implement Human Centric Lighting (HCL) Solutions.
HCL can improve the workplace experience by thinking about building design in an entirely new way. Workplace lighting can, in addition to providing sufficient light to conduct work-related visual tasks, affect employees’ alertness, mood, cognition, sleep-wake pattern and health. The objective of HCL is not only to maximise the value of LED lighting but also to adjust the intensity of the light and colour quality – correlated colour temperature (CCT) and colour rendering.
LED-based HCL is controllable and tunable across a spectrum of CCTs to evoke particular human biological responses and behaviour in well-designed indoor environments. In order to incorporate HCL into a building, one requires to install both tunable fixtures and smart lighting controls to drive intensity and CCT.
Outlook
The development of smart cities, increasing usage of wireless technology, and increasing awareness of energy efficiency are driving the growth of smart lighting technology. India’s focus on the development of smart cities also provides further scope for the development of energy efficient smart lighting technology. The Indian government has announced plans to invest in smart cities and in 2018 also allocated over USD 2.3 billion in smart cities.
“The future of LED lighting is bright as every sector from the automobile industry, to health and agricultural sector among many other sectors seem to be embracing LED technology with the help of government support,” states Uttamchandani of Syska Group.
The new trends in the market such as growing demand for IoT technology and emergence of light fidelity (Li-Fi) technology has a direct impact on the dynamics and market of smart lighting technology.
“Technologies such as Li-Fi, which is basically like WiFi but with light and indoor positioning which tracks people’s positions to use luminaires are on the basis of visible light communication. The Indian lighting industry will continue to grow at a higher rate per annum, ranging between 13 per cent and 15 per cent until 2020,” anticipates Raju Bista of Surya Roshni.
Havells India is bullish on promoting energy-efficient LED products and greener fuels. “In order to tap the growth potential in the power sector in India, we have already enhanced our manufacturing capabilities from 5 lakh lamps to 25 lakh lamps per month. We at Havells are all set to support government’s initiatives. We have also started the process of phasing out the CFLs and focussing on the manufacturing of LED lights which have huge growth potential and currently contribute 75 per cent to our lighting division’s turnover,” concludes Bhasin.
