New Delhi, Aug 21 (IANS): By switching to LED in street lighting, 5,000 mw of electricity consumption will be saved over a period of three years, lighting industry apex body ELCOMA India said Thursday.

"ELCOMA India, in its initiative to ensure that the lighting industry sees technological advancements, has ensured that the ministry of urban development has mandated all state governments to change the street lighting into LEDs in their domain," ELCOMA India said in a statement.

"This initiative of changing the street lights is directed for the entire country which boasts of 27.5 million such street lights. This change will enable us to save more than 5,000 MW of electricity consumption over a period of three years," it added.

The lighting industry in India is now worth about Rs.12,000 crore.

The mandate by the urban development ministry followed a Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) survey on the street lights of the entire country, which found that more than 80 percent of street lights in India were installed till date in a haphazard manner without considering the pole distance, type of luminaire, height of luminaire etc for different streets and which had specific requirements to enable good lighting during the night, the statement said.

"ELCOMA India has played a very crucial role in bringing the government to understand the benefits of energy conservation and how successfully this can be replicated by replacing the street lights with LED lamps across the country," said ELCOMA secretary general Shyam Sujan.

"This was also possible post-ELCOMA's initiative of holding lighting workshops and conferences in various state capitals to bring in awareness about various technologies for energy conservation and how street lights can play a major part in this conservation," he added.