Visakhapatnam: Advertising billboards erected in towns and cities across the state appear least bothered about advisories of electricity authorities regarding switching off lighting systems from 6 p.m. on a day to 6 a.m. the next day for saving electricity and overcoming power cuts.
According to AP Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL) chairman and managing director K. Santosha Rao advertisement hoardings and signboards should not use power between 6 p.m. every day and 6 a.m. the next morning. But when Deccan Chronicle checked, almost all advertisement boards in Visakhapatnam city had been glowing at night. Sources say the situation is similar across the state.
An Andhra University professor dealing with electrical engineering said advertisers should not have any objections about switching off boards during late night hours, as nobody is there to see what billboards depict. This can help save thousands of megawatts of electricity. The same can be transmitted to areas starved of power.
Speaking to DC, a functionary of an advertisement agency in Visakhapatnam said there are nearly 400 small to big-sized billboards within Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits. There will be nearly 2,000 billboards across 26 districts of the state. “We can save at least 10,000 kilowatts of power if we stop all billboards at a time per hour,” the ad functionary said.
A staff of another advertising agency said they are ready to cooperate with government for safeguarding larger interests of people in the country. But the government had not given them any official instructions about switching off billboards.
“The reason is that government is thinking of revenue it will lose at the rate of ₹ 18 per unit of electricity a billboard consumes,” he pointed out.
An official of New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP) said solar-powered billboards are available in the market. Though these are expensive, they are energy efficient, save electricity and are economical in the long run.
“We do not have solar powered billboards in the state as of now. But there will definitely be proposals in the future,” the NREDCAP officer told.
