ELPRO Energy Dimensions Pvt. Ltd, is an ESCO (Energy Saving COmpany). During the recently concluded TFSC conference at the Raintree Hotel, Chennai, Mr. Nalin Kanshal, Director of the company gave a presentation on how they worked with BDA for their street light energy conservation project that ended up saving a lot of power/money for the residents of Bangalore.
Think about the ways in which street lights might be inefficient - Many street lights are switched on and off manually - some street lights may not be switched on/off in the right time; street lights maybe duller during peak hours and brighter during late-nights (when no one requires them); poor power quality input; defective/improper energy metering; lack of central monitoring/control mechanism; power theft, etc. If some of these concerns are addressed, the efficiency levels of street lights can improve and the energy consumption/cost will come down.
After initial survey and baseline determination, ELPRO identified the following areas to work on this project:
- Remote energy metering
- Remote lights switching on/off
- Dimming control of lights during late-nights
- Power conditioning through voltage controls
- Effective power theft monitoring
Various energy efficiency measures were adopted for this project. Defective energy meters were replaced and calibrated to provide proper energy consumption data. These energy meters were connected to a central control mechanism in order to track energy usage 24 x 7. The voltage provided to the circuit/feeder was controlled (reduced) via the central control mechanism to conserve energy during off-peak hours/late-nights (among others).
The remote system provided by ELPRO is based on CDMA (cellular technology) for control and is called ETrACS.
After implementing all the energy tracking and energy saving measures, the energy cost for running all the street lights in the Inner/Outer ring roads of Bangalore was reduced from 13 Lakhs per month to 7 Lakhs per month.
There was no upfront investment for BDA and the funding required for the project was raised by the ESCO from financial institutions/international funding agencies. The repayment was primarily made through the cost savings enabled by the energy efficiency mechanisms, over a contract period (typically 6-7 years). After that, ownership and profits are handed over fully to BDA.
Typically, in any company/manufacturing unit, a lot of money can be saved by implementing simple energy monitoring/conservation mechanisms. If the management of the company doesn't want to invest the initial cost, ESCOs can still arrange for the funding and take back their investment/profits from the amount of money saved due to energy saving mechanisms implemented. As you can see, this is a zero-risk/zero-capital venture for the company which pays them rich dividends. A lot of energy (and money) can be saved in the process. Why leave money on the table?
