New Delhi, July 22 (IANS): The government stands committed to making the light emitting diode (LED) a way of life in India, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.

"The government is to completely replace all incandescent bulbs in the country with LED lights in the next three years," Goyal said at a conference here.

"This will provide a huge business opportunity to the lighting industry," he added.

Urging the lighting industry to correct the market price of LED, Goyal said there cannot be a situation where the government procures LED bulbs at Rs.72 per unit and the market continues to price it very high.

"The government is capable of providing LED bulbs to every household at lower rates but it will remove the competitive edge from the industry. We want the market forces to take over," he said.

"I hope some of the players can also now start manufacturing LED lights and not just assemble," he added.

Launching an LED-based mass lighting programme in Varanasai last month, Goyal said that with LED, electricity demand in the city would come down by 45 MW and lead to savings of Rs.68 crore.

The central and Uttar Pradesh governments, in association with the state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL), will distribute about 1.3 million LED bulbs to more than 200,000 domestic consumers.

The initiative comes under the Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme -- DELP -- and would replace thousands of conventional street lights with the energy efficient LEDs in Varanasi.

"With energy efficient LED lights, demand of electricity in Varanasi will be down by 45 MW and lead to savings to the tune of Rs.68 crore," Goyal said.

"The innovative business model of conversion of conventional streetlights with energy-efficient LED street lights has the potential of replication as it obviates the need for any capital investment by municipal bodies," he added.

EESL will replace the estimated 36,077 conventional streetlights with energy efficient and smart LED lights across the city at its own cost, the union power ministry said in a statement.

"Provided with free replacements and maintenance of lights at no additional cost, municipalities can affordably install state-of-the-art, long-lasting and energy efficient street lights at no upfront capital cost," the statement added.

"Under DELP, each household having a connected load of less than or equal to two kilowatts will be provided with up to five 7-watt high-quality LED bulbs at an initial payment of Rs.10 each followed by a recovery of Rs.110 each over a period of 11 months from electricity bills."

According to the power ministry, the combined impact of the twin initiatives could help Varanasi achieve energy savings to the tune of nearly 104 million kilowatt hours annually.