Nine States have achieved complete household electrification under the Saubhagya scheme, according to the Ministry of Power. They are Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Telangana and West Bengal, a Power Ministry statement said.

The Ministry had recently lowered the household electrification target by around 10 million homes, or about one-fourth of the earlier goal.

Year-end deadline

This was because some users have opted out of the electrification programme while some houses are not regularly occupied. With this, 16 States in the country now have 100 per cent household electrification. “Many more States such as Maharashtra, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh among others are left with a small number of non-electrified households and are expected to achieve saturation any time… The country is expected to achieve 100 per cent household electrification by December 31, 2018,” the statement added.

The Power Ministry also said that 31.68 crore LED bulbs have been distributed under the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LED for All (UJALA) scheme resulting in estimated cost saving of ₹16,457 crore per year. The estimated energy savings stand at 41.14 billion kWh per year with the avoided peak demand of 8,237 MW and Green House Gas (GHG) emission reduction of 33.32 million tonne of CO2 a year.

LED lighting

The Power Ministry also aims to to replace 1.34 crore conventional streetlights with smart and energy efficient LED lights by March, 2019.

Till now 74.79 lakh LED street lights have been installed resulting in estimated energy savings of 5.02 billion kWh per year with avoided peak demand of 837 MW and GHG emission reduction of 3.46 million tonne of CO2 a year.

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