Mumbai: With an aim to reduce power consumption and to cut down on expenses towards electricity bills, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has initiated a slew of measures towards smart electricity management. As per statistics sourced from the public works department (PWD), there are around 15,000 street light poles across the twin-city out of which 3,000 poles having power hogging bulbs have been replaced with LED’s (light emitting diode) which has trimmed the electricity bills by nearly 45 percent.
The civic administration which aims to replace the remaining bulbs in the next three months, has also written to the power supply agency keep streetlight poles on the main roads glowing on a rotational basis between 12 am to 4 am, this apart from suggesting installation of timers in street lights so they can automatically switch on and off at specific sunset and sunrise timings.
Owing to the presence of high mast poles, around 143 additional street lights which were operational under the All-In Hire Scheme have been decommissioned which has witnessed a reduction of more than Rs.1.52 lakh per month in the existing bills. “There is significant scope for saving energy across various sectors including street lights, pumping stations, sewage treatment plants and other civic properties. We have decided to save electricity by implementing various measures.” said municipal commissioner -Sanjay Katkar.
In a bid to take energy efficiency to the next level the MBMC has also started installing rooftop solar plants at all municipal properties including schools, ward offices, hospital, and other administrative offices in the twin-city. The MBMC which also plans to install mega solar power plants where needed has started an audit of it’s pumping stations and sewage treatment plants for better maintenance and also to install energy efficient and heavy duty apparatus.
