Power-smart AMC to use alternate energy

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) plans to switch to alternate power and energy-efficient technology for reducing electricity consumption.

The civic body will install four solar plants of 100 kilowatt each at four places in the city. It also plans to save around half of its present electricity bill incurred on street lights by replacing sodium lights with low watt LED lights.

As a result of these initiatives, the AMC will be able to save quite a few crores of rupees of its annual electricity bill of around Rs125 crore.

The civic body will install and start operation of solar power plant at its main office at Danapith and Memco Sports Complex by August, while one plant each will be installed at Kotarpur Water Treatment Plant and Sardar Patel Stadium by July and October respectively.

"The civic body will continue to have conventional power connection by paying fixed charges to the power distribution company. Still the power will be cheaper," said Guruprasad Mohapatra, commissioner of AMC.

The civic body has started using street lights in alternate manner at selective places from midnight to 5 am taking into consideration vehicular movement. There are 45,000 streetlight poles in 750 sections in the city.

The AMC started the experiment of alternate use of street lights in 59 sections which helped it save Rs1.17 lakh on electricity bill per month. The system can help the civic body save more than Rs1.50 crore annually on electricity bills of street lights.

Moreover, AMC also plans to convert around 81,000 tube lights of 36 watt with 18 watt LED tube lights. In the first phase, it will convert 5,000 tube lights in west and south zones.

Also, around 10,000 sodium lights on streets will be replaced with low watts LED lights. Both the initiatives are likely to save electricity by 50%. AMC also plans to replace 36-watt conventional tube lights in various residential societies with energy-efficient T-5 tube lights.