New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS): More than 200 companies are taking part in an international exhibition on LED (light emitting diode) lighting and technologies that opened Friday at the capital's Pragati Maidan exposition venue.

The three-day LED Expo 2014 organised by global trade fairs organisers Messe Frankfurt has participation of companies from China, Taiwan, Finland, and Korea.

Besides, domestic firms like Donex Industries, FIEM Industries, Hublit Lighting and Sigma Lighting Industries are also among those participating in the expo.

"India has a huge market for LED lighting but is yet to be explored. Through this expo, we want to tap this huge potential," Messe Frankfurt India managing director Raj Manek said.

"We are expecting the fair to grow by at least 20 to 30 percent next year. We are also trying to bring in a number of foreign delegates so that we can showcase what our domestic industries are doing," he added.

"The government is taking a number of steps to increase the use of LED. We have already requested state governments and municipal bodies to gradually replace the traditional street lights with LED lights and also increase the use of LED in government offices and buildings," said Parmod Kumar, director in the urban development ministry.

LEDs are emerging as the most energy-efficient source of lighting as they use one-tenth of the energy of a normal incandescent bulb and half as much energy as a Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) to produce the same degree of light.

The union power ministry in October launched a business model enabling the sale of LED bulbs to households at Rs.10 against the market price of Rs.400.

"The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) together with the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which is a joint venture of four central public sector undertakings in the power sector, have worked with electricity distribution companies (discoms) to develop a business model under which EESL procures LED bulbs in bulk and sells them to households at Rs.10," an official release here said.

"The discoms then repay EESL, over a period of five to eight years from the savings that accrue due to use of this energy efficient lighting technology," it added.

The ministry has already decided that all below poverty line households at the time of electrification under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyuthikaran Yojana (RGGVY) would be provided LED technology.

The first LED lamp made in India, in 2010, was sold for Rs.1,200.