GUNTUR: The Guntur Municipal Corporation will save 32.4 per cent of its power bill by computerising the streetlight switching system in the city and also save manhours of its employees.

Guntur has 22,000 streetlights with 620 switching stations making it unwieldy for the corporation to monitor their maintenance despite deploying a large contingent of technical personnel.

The Hyderabad based I-One Tech Labs has executed a demonstration project on a two-km stretch of the ring road at Koritepadu to show how centralisation of switching operations can result in a Rs.2.88 crores savings per annum. This calculation is made with per-unit power cost taken as Rs.3.75.

How it works

The new technology involves a small electronic gadget fixed at the switching point and networking the entire city to enable two-way communication from each bulb to the central switching station. This enables the controller to know the status of each lamp.

It involves data communication through power line carrier and wireless using Global System for Mobile (GSM) integrated into the NeoSoft software that allows two-way data communication as in a cell phone (SMS).

I-One director G. Sriram said that the GMC could switch on or off any particular light or a series of lights with a particular pattern - like every alternate bulb or every third bulb, depending on the local need. "This will result in enormous saving in electricity. After 10 p.m., half of the lights can be switched off and after midnight one-third of the lighting would serve the purpose," he opined.

The switching controller sitting in the GMC administrative office can replace the manual work of 27 persons now engaged in the activity for half-an-hour every morning and evening. The system itself reports failure of bulbs and allows quicker maintenance.

Huge saving

In a 12-hour period from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., 1,65,000 units can be saved amounting to 25 per cent, by changing the lighting pattern. One hour saved for switching operation results in saving of 4.1 per cent of power. The reduced time of maintenance due to `auto-reporting' feature saves another 3.33 per cent.

All this results in a daily saving of Rs.80,190, which translates into Rs.2.88 crores per year.

Guntur Mayor Kanna Nagaraju and Municipal Commissioner D. Rama Rao who, along with a few corporators, watched the demonstration recently propose to put it before the Council general body meeting to get an approval. The project cost has not been made public.

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