Rich dividends to Chennai Corporation

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on Aug 22, 2010:

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation has started reaping the benefits of a ban on incandescent bulbs at its offices here. From September last, the civic body has switched over to CFL lamps.

A senior official told Express that the corporation’s electricity bill would come down by Rs 4 crore in the coming months when pitched efforts would be made to use more CFL lamps and introduce energy-efficient measures.

This is a welcome development considering the fact that the corporation spent Rs 20 crore towards electricity needs last year.

Another factor that triggered power conservation is that the corporaton has saved more than Rs 3 lakh from April to July end just by removing 1000-odd incandescent lamps from its offices. Introduction of 60 energy savers in streetlights helped to save another Rs 8 lakh during the same period.

With a view to restricting its electricity bill to Rs 16 crore this year, the corporation plans to introduce more energy savers in streetlights in a phased manner.

In the first phase, energy saver packs were installed in 60 locations a few months ago, reducing consumption by 50 per cent in those areas.

Energy savers are fixed to the pillar-boxes distributing power and activated between 11 pm and 4 am. Lights would dim based on vehicle movement when the system is on.

“If the energy savers were installed in all possible stretches across the city, more power and money can be saved,” the official said. By stabilising the conservation drive, electricity charges could be reduced by 50 per cent in next four to five years, he said.

The civic body has also changed to five-star rating air conditioners and ceiling fans,considerably reducing power consumption.