In an unique endeavour aimed at efficient eco-friendly lighting, Indian Railways is scheduled to replace 2.6 million incandescent bulbs in railway quarters with energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The project will be launched with a stakeholder meeting this Sunday at a railway colony in Ghaziabad (in Uttar Pradesh).
Officials from Indian Railways, Philips, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of India and carbon finance company C-Quest Capital will meet residents of the colony to discuss the modalities of the project and seek their suggestions. The actual distribution of CFLS will begin by end of the month.
Under the ?efficient lighting? project, CFLs of 14 watt or 18 watt will be given to each household free of charge by the private player (in this case Philips). Each household will be entitled to a maximum of four CFLs. In exchange, incandescent bulbs will be returned to the Railways Bulb Collection Centre. The CFL usage by each household will be monitored through meters.
?While initially we are starting in the Northern Railway division with the distribution of CFLs to the railway colony at Ghaziabad, in another three years? time all railway zones will be covered,? said Jyotsna Goel, a consultant with C-Quest Capital, which is helping in implementing the project.
The project, which will be spread over a 10 year period and targets all 16 railway zones, is under the Bachat Lamp Yojana of the BEE and is expected to save 60 giga watts of energy.
Interestingly, the railways is not spending a single rupee on this and will instead save nearly Rs 130 crore from the switchover. It is estimated to save Rs 100 crore on its energy bill and another Rs 30 crore if it had to pay for the CFLs on its own.
Under the agreement, a consortium of Philips- Goldman Sachs will provide CFLs to the railway quarters and in exchange recoup their investments through selling the potential carbon credits by registering the project at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. According to the Kyoto Protocol, one carbon credit can be earned by preventing generation of a tonne of carbon dioxide. According to the UNFCC stipulation, one carbon credit is worth $10.
While initially railways is targeting only its residential quarters, officials said it could later be expanded to cover railway hospitals, offices and workshops.
A similar scheme under the Bachat Lamp Yojana is also being implemented by the Andhra Pradesh government. The Bachat Lamp Yojana is an umbrella scheme by the BEE which promotes replacement of inefficient bulbs with CFLs under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.