UJALA will be implemented across country by 2019: Piyush Goyal

Bhopal: The Centre's ambitious National LED programme -- Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) -- will be implemented across the country by 2019, Minister for Power and Coal, Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.

"Since the UJALA scheme was launched a year ago on May 1, a total of 9 crore LED bulbs were sold in the country, which means people will get the benefit of Rs 5,500 crore in their electricity bills. It will be implemented across the country by 2019," Goyal said here while launching the scheme in Madhya Pradesh.

"Nearly 77 crore incandescent bulbs will be replaced till 2019 in the country which will ensure an annual benefit of Rs 40,000 crore to the people in their electricity bills and this will lead the country to fulfil its need of energy security, which is very vital for the nation as it will reduce dependability on coal."

Citing an example, Goyal said a 9-W LED bulb gives the same luminosity compared with a 100-W incandescent lamp while consuming less than one-tenth of the power. "If you save one unit of electricity, it means you are saving 1.33 unit of power for the nation," he explained.

Goyal touched on the criticality of the programme in ensuring the country's energy security, saying that when a power station generates 1.33 unit of power, only 1 unit actually reaches the consumer due to transmission issues.

The cost of a 9-W LED bulb under the scheme is Rs 85 only and Madhya Pradesh has set a target of switching over to this mode in the next one-and-a-half years, which would make it the only state in the country to achieve 100 per cent target on this front.

He lauded the state for its efforts in enhancing its renewable energy capacity to 1,500 MW in 2014-15, which jumped 100 per cent to 3,000 MW in 2015-16.

The world's largest solar power plant, the minister said, is coming up in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district and the state government is making all efforts to get it inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that on the lines of UJALA, the Centre has launched Ujjwala scheme under which the government will provide LPG connections with gas stoves to poor women.

He called upon people to replace old lamps with LED bulbs to save power and make it cheaper.

State energy minister Rajendra Shukla disclosed that after selling the targetted 3 crore LED bulbs, Madhya Pradesh would order for 7 crore more bulbs in the next phase.