Good response to KSEB's Labha Prabha Scheme

KOCHI: The third edition of Kerala State Electricity Board’s Labha Prabha, the energy conservation scheme, is getting encouraging response from consumers. As part of the programme, LED bulbs are being distributed to consumers at a nominal price of Rs.95 while the bulbs are sold at Rs.400 each in the open market.

Each consumer is given  two LED bulbs of 9 watts with a three-year warranty. The non-paying consumers are given two bulbs free of cost. “The programme has received encouraging response even during the initial days due to the concessional rate of bulbs. In the central region, consisting of seven circles, several consumers have bought the bulbs.  In a circle in Thrissur district, more than 350 bulbs were sold on the very first day,” said Mr C.K. Dayapradeep, KSEB chief engineer (distribution – central region).

“As the LED bulbs will help  reduce electricity bills to a considerable extent, consumers are keen to buy them. The board has introduced the scheme to replace the traditional and CLF bulbs with LED lamps as it has reduced power consumption with  less impact on environment,” he added.

The KSEB has also introduced instalment payment system through which consumers can pay for the bulbs in four instalments along with the bimonthly bills. The lamps will be home-delivered to the online payers for a token service charge.

Minister for Power Aryadan Muhammad had earlier said that through the initiative KSEB aims at cutting the daily peak time load by 350 MW and saving 400 million units of power per year. It was in 2013 that the KSEB launched Labha Prabha for energy conservation in the domestic sector, to which  more than half of the power is distributed.