The state-wide LED distribution under the UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) scheme will be initiated by union power and renewable minister Piyush Goyal on April 30. The programme is being organised at chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s official residence. The LED bulbs are of superior quality and one third of the market price, which will be available at Rs85 for a 9 watt bulb”, state power and renewable energy minister Rajendra Shukla told TOI.
He said UJALA is a Centrally sponsored scheme being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). In Madhya Pradesh, the union minister will open distribution of three crore bulbs. Officials of the Urja Vikas Nigam said that LED bulbs consume 90% less energy than ordinary bulbs and 50 per cent lower energy than the CFL bulbs. The life of LED bulbs is four times the life of CFL and 25 times that of ordinary bulbs. The price of each LED bulb is Rs85 with a three-year guarantee from the date of purchase. On the progress in the field of renewable energy, minister Shukla claimed that Madhya Pradesh has been contributing more than 40% of the total green energy production of the country. We have a solar pump scheme for farmers as 4000 pumps are to be distributed across the state. Centre is giving 30% grant on a pump but the state cabinet will decide the actual price as the government is trying to provide the pump to the farmer at Rs50,000 or one lakh against its original cost of Rs6 lakh per pump”, Shukla told TOI Shukla said the state will soon get world’s biggest solar power plant in Rewa as Prime Minister is likely to lay the foundation of the plant by the end of June month. We have done pre-bid conference to invite private investors. Final auction for the plant will be held on June 3 where the date of PM’s visit will be finalized”, said the minister.
“Global tenders for commissioning the 750 mega watt (MW) solar power station in an area of over 1,500 hectares at Bandwar region in Gudh tehsil of Rewa, will be finalized shortly. The project is a joint venture of Solar Energy Corporation of India and MP Urja Vikas Nigam, where Delhi Metro is also one of the buyers.” said Shukla. He said cost of generating one MW solar energy comes to around Rs7.6 crore. The state government has prepared a road map for this ambitious project as Prime Minister is keen to push green energy across the country. If all goes well, PM Modi will lay the foundation of the plant between June 15 and 30. The plant will start generating solar energy by December 2017, though, the date has been extended by a year, said the minister. Shukla also boasted about state’s contribution in the solar and wind energy production. Against a target of 3300MW wind energy production in, MP has a contribution of 1400MW. Similarly, of the total 3500MW solar energy production, MP has produced 400MW”, said Shukla. Denying delay in the project, Shukla claimed that MP is number one in total green energy production in the country. In solar energy, rates are decided by competitive bidding while for wind energy rate are decided by the regulator.
Recently rates have been reduced for the FY 2016-17 to Rs4.71 from earlier Rs5.92 per unit”, he said adding, four years back, rates of solar energy were Rs12 to 14 per unit. In 2013-14, they were reduced to Rs8 to 9 per unit. Now after tendering the rates have been fixed to Rs5.05 per unit, he said. By giving a push to the green energy, Madhya Pradesh has plans to replace thermal energy with solar energy, which will be cheaper in the coming years. he said the state has also initiated roof top policy for which net-metering has been proposed. We are trying to convince the regulator for including high tension power consumers in the roof top policy so that they could avail the benefit of cheaper energy”, said Shukla.
Source:TOI
