Mangalore to save power by replacing sodium vapour with compact fluorescent lamp

Mangalore to save power by replacing sodium vapour with compact fluorescent lamp

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, March 4: The Mangalore City Corporation, the third largest civic body in Karnataka, will replace all sodium vapour streetlights with CFL units by September and will make Mangalore the first city to go CFL completely. Currently, Mangalore is equipped with 51,700 streetlights of which 5,300 are sodium vapor units.

Mayor Praveen said that the sodium vapour units in the city consume 150 watts per hour, forcing the civic body to spend large sums of money just to keep the streets well lit. The civic body has already fitted CFL units in certain areas and are saving 40 – 45 percent on energy.

Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje has expressed her appreciation of this initiative. If all cities, towns, and villages decide to go CFL both for streets and at home, the state will save around 500 MW per day, she said.

Mr. Shankar Bhat, the former mayor of Mangalore, said that the civic body had sent a proposal to the government to replace tube lights and sodium vapour lights with CFL in June 2008, but the government did not approve of the proposal because of the high cost of CFL lights. Today, the government’s Belaku scheme provides CFL fittings at subsidized rates, owing to which Mangalore can afford to go 100 percent CFL, he said.

The streetlight division officials said that 5,300 sodium vapour units will be replaced with CFL fittings in the first place of the project. Tube lights will be replaced later. A CFL light requires just 85 watts against the 150 watts consumed by sodium vapour lights, but provide the same quality of light. In fact, CFL fittings come with multi focal reflectors that enhance light by 20 percent.

Karandlaje said that she will replicate the project in many other Tier II cities and towns outside the BBMP’s jurisdiction if the civic body successfully achieves it goal. She also promised that she will give due credit to the MCC in either cash or kind. She has expressed hopes that the city will be the first to provide at least one LED unit to every house.