Because of the negligence of the city corporation staff in switching street lamps off and on, 420MW of power worth about Tk34 lakh is wasted every month, which could have been used to meet the demand of 4,000 non-urban households or an entire district town.
According to a recent survey by the government’s Power Cell, street lamps should be turned on just before sunset and turned off right after sunrise every day. But in reality, the staff of the two city corporations in Dhaka turn these lamps on at least half an hour before sunset and leave them on even two hours after sunrise.
Considering that there are a total of 71,276 street lamps in the city with a combined power demand of 7MW per hour, the two hours of extra service on an average costs 14MW per day and 420MW per month.
The report assumes that the current cost of generating each unit of power is Tk6.5.
Most street lights are conventional fluorescent, halogen and sodium, and very few of them are energy saving. The survey report recommends that the conventional fluorescent and sodium lamps should be replaced by energy-saving light emitting diode (LED) lamps.
Two power distribution companies – Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) – supply electricity to the two city corporation areas.
According to the report, there are 1,123 metering and 1,247 switching points in the city corporation areas on paper. There should be one or more switching points under each of the metering points. Each of the switching points is used for turning one or more lamps on and off.
The metering points are used to keep track of the price of power consumed by the street lamps.
However, the Power Cell surveyors have found that, in reality, there are neither enough metering points, nor enough switching points. Moreover, because switching points are not installed in the right places, voltage fluctuates and results in dim lighting in some places and unnecessarily bright lighting at other places.
According to the report, at present, one switch-man turns on 33 lamps in an average every day. It recommends increasing the number of switch-man and strengthening the monitoring to stop the huge power wastage.
The surveyors have also found that the lamps on the streets, leading from Mirpur 10 intersection to the Sony Cinema Hall in the capital, do not have approval from Desco. As a result, the power used by these lamps is getting wasted unmonitored.
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) CEO Ansar Ali Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have instructed the operators to switch on the street lamps just after sunset and turn them off right after sunrise. However, there are some areas in the city where the rules are not being followed properly.”
He claimed that DNCC did not owe any amount to the DPDC. Instead, the DPDC owned money to the DNCC.
Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) CEO MB Enamul Haque said: “If you find any case where the street lamp switching system schedule was broken, you may specify it and we will take action against the irresponsible operators.” He also claimed that the DSCC did not owe any bill to Desco.
