LED bulbs burn out quickly
Even though, official records are showing data of LED bulbs distributed to the lakhs of consumers that aimed at reducing power consumption and regular bills but these bulbs are burning out much before their life span. The consumers are started replacing them with non-LED bulbs diluting the basic idea of distributing LED lights.
Nellore: Even though, official records are showing data of LED bulbs distributed to the lakhs of consumers that aimed at reducing power consumption and regular bills but these bulbs are burning out much before their life span. The consumers are started replacing them with non-LED bulbs diluting the basic idea of distributing LED lights.
Highlights:
- Distribution of LED bulbs for saving power fails in Nellore
- EESL had distributed 14.16 lakh LED bulbs to the consumers through the Discom and reports say more than half were burnt out
- Replacement mechanism has to be strengthened for saving power and charges
It may be recalled that the state government in cooperation with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) had distributed more than 2.16 crore LED bulbs across the state for saving of 28.15 lakh megawatt hours power per annum that translates into Rs 1,126 crore.
In Nellore, 14.16 lakh LED bulbs were distributed to the consumers at 2 per household based on number of power connections. Each bulb was distributed at Rs 10 each under ‘Unnat Jyoti’ by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) scheme. In fact, the state government had entered into an agreement with EESL for providing all these bulbs which were acquired at Rs 200-250 per each 9w bulb negotiating with the manufacturing companies.
Now, these bulbs were being ignored as the Discoms failed to provide necessary replacement cell or wing for addressing the problems of consumers.In Nellore, these bulbs were distributed through their offices of the APSPDCL at AK Nagar and Kotamitta in Nellore; Atmakur, Gudur, Kovur, Muthukur, Naidupet, Kavali, Venkatagiri and Udayagiri.
Counters were not opened by the Discom for accepting grievances from the consumers in all their offices and they had simply engaged agencies for collecting burned out bulbs for replacement. It was also done some time ago in the initial months as an eyewash activity and now the agency is not taking care of the difficulties.
“We have engaged an agency for replacing the bulbs in city and other parts, now they are not doing it. We will check and take necessary action. They have accepted many such requests till recently when the counter was operational,” said Sanjay Kumar, Divisional Engineer (Operations), Nellore city.
Experts in the electricity sector say an LED lamp will not just automatically burn out and generally the amount of light it emits will gradually lessen and it will not be as efficient as it once was. But, in the city now, these bulbs are emitting light compared to other conventional bulbs.
They also say excess temperatures also play a crucial role in deciding life span of the bulb. If the temperature around it gets too hot and it does not have a proper heat sink, that can cause the LEDs in the lamp to overheat and then it will fail, they explain.
Nellore, normally, simmers with huge temperatures and the district had touched 46.3 degree Celcius during summer. Interestingly, majority bulbs failed even during last winter due to unknown reasons. The EESL says the probable failure rate of these bulbs in AP was 0.33 per cent up to August 2016 and on an average it was 0.30 per cent across the country. Officials are not aware of exact number of bulbs failed due to erratic operations of the counters.
The state government through its State Energy Conservation Mission distributed 19,29,543 bulbs in Visakhapatnam district; 18,55,380 in West Godavari; 21,15,872 in Krishna; 13,96,088 in Prakasam; 13,66,846 in Anantapur; 11,58,067 in Kadapa; 18,48,296 in Chittoor; 12,40,595 in Srikakulam; 10,23,518 in Vizianagaram;
25,65,901 in East Godavari; 21,84,986 in Guntur and 15,73,999 in Kurnool district, according to EESL officials. The EESL provides replacement for all LED bulbs free of cost for three years. The replacements will be done through the distribution centres. The Corporation had provided data of centres for replacement across the country. Meanwhile, people have been throwing out these Rs 200-250 worth bulbs failing to realise the cost incurred by the state government.
By P V Prasad
