LEDVANCE has successfully delivered 25 million energy-efficient LED lamps to Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), the Indian government agency in charge of executing India‘s UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) initiative.

(Image: PR Newswire)

The deal, which LEDVANCE won in a public tender in March 2017, is one of the largest government contracts of all-time for the company. The on time conclusion of the project in December 2017 is the result of a close collaboration with MLS Co. Ltd, which is part of the investment consortium that acquired LEDVANCE from Osram GmbH back in March 2017. 

Over 100 million kilowatt per hour! This is the targeted annual energy savings, the Indian government aims to achieve by replacing an estimated 770 million, mostly incandescent lamps, with energy-efficient LED lamps by 2019 through its UJALA initiative. Since its inception in January 2015, more than 28 crore (or 280 million) LED lamps have been distributed to local communities all across the country by EESL, which is responsible to execute UJALA under the supervision of the Ministry of Power.

In March 2017, LEDVANCE had successfully participated in a public tender carried out by EESL and was awarded a contract over the delivery of 25 million LED lamps against numerous regional and international competitors, making this one of its largest government deals in terms of unit volume in almost 100 years of being in the general lighting business – first as part of Siemens and Osram and, since March 2017, as a standalone company with new owners.

By end of December 2017, the final tranches of the 25 million 9 Watt LED lamps have been delivered to EESL for further distribution – on time as agreed by the contractual partners. Assuming that the LED lamps burn on average 4 hours per day, the annual energy savings – compared to equivalent 60 Watt incandescent bulbs – would slightly exceed the annual energy output of a medium-sized, 300 Megawatt coal-fired power plant that operates 16 hours a day.

Erol Kirilmaz, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at LEDVANCE, comments, “The successful conclusion of this massive project together with our partners from MLS is a great testimony of our two companies winning together. At the same time, it shows us that it pays off, particularly in emerging markets like India, to have a regional set-up like ours: with a salesforce and sales-supporting functions who have strong ties to our customers on the ground and who can therefore respond swiftly to their demands.”

Lawrence Lin, Executive General Manager at MLS, adds, “We have always talked about the great synergies between our companies. This deal now shows how those synergies are coming to life and we are confident that this is just the beginning”.

The government deal in India also blends in with LEDVANCE’s commitment to sell 2,5 billion LED lamps by 2023, which the company announced in June 2017 at the Global Lighting Challenge during the eighth Clean Energy Ministerial Summit (CEM8) in Beijing.