CDM based CFL scheme - Ministry of Power

CFLs. Hence, a mandatory regulation for compulsory
use of CFL in place of ICL is not foreseen.
The second alternative-- autonomous growth of CFLs
in domestic lighting in India, though a possibility faces
a number of barriers and would not occur anyway in
India. The barriers are listed as under:
Barrier at Consumer Level
1. High initial capital cost of CFL and high consumer
discount rate - The electricity consumer in
households even if they understand that they will
save money from energy efficiency (EE)
investments, will only invest in EE measures if
the financial returns occur for sure and that too
in the very short term.
Domestic consumers often have a limited
understanding of the benefits of EE investments.
They are often cash-constrained and since the
investment in CFL is nearly 10 times that of ICL,
domestic consumers are not willing to make such
investments.
2. Lack of information - in a developing country like
India, there is insufficient information about the
costs and benefits of energy efficiency,
particularly, with the domestic consumer. The
efforts of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)
under the BLY scheme are focused towards
enhancing consumer awareness and promote
energy efficiency.
3. Split incentives - Especially in the case of new
buildings , the builder or owner of a home or
building does not pay the energy bills, he/she
usually have little financial incentive to make EE
improvements, while the resident owner / tenants,
who pays the bills, does not want to make major
EE investments in property they do not own.
4. Doubts that promised savings will accrue - Some
of the earlier versions of CFL's launched in the
Indian market were of low quality and had large
failure rates. Since the Indian Standard for CFLs
has been implemented, a minimum level of
20 Bureau of Energy Efficiency
quality is assured. However, consumers are still
skeptical about the energy savings that will accrue
from their CFL use.
5. Incentives not high enough - Domestic energy
users do not have a financial incentive to
implement EE measures. They operate the CFL
for a very short duration 11 coupled with the lower
tariff structure 12 in comparison with commercial
users and hence the incentive for them to adopt
CFL is low.
Technology Barrier
— Power Factor: BIS plan to implement a
mandatory standard which require Power Factor
(PF) of 0.85 and above for CFL bulbs (at present
the PF is ? 0.5). These High PF Bulbs, given the
technology built-in, are likely to be priced 20%
higher. With this included the economics change
considerably
— Poor Quality of Power Supply: CFLs unlike an
ICL are more susceptible to failure. This is because
CFLs include electronic parts whereas ICLs just
make use of a resistive load. Moreover, ICLs can
work at very low voltages and emit light. CFLs
on the other hand can emit light only with a
voltage greater than 170 V. To address the quality
issues, starting 2006, an Indian standard 15111
has been applied to all CFLs sold in the Indian
market.
Barrier at Market Level
1. Unavailability of energy-efficient products -
Manufacturers often do not make or market more
energy-efficient products, especially in non-urban
centers, as they do not expect to have a market
for these products. In addition, product
distributors and retailers often do not have any
incentive to stock or aggressively display energyefficient
products, making it difficult for willing
customers to find the efficient products they may
seek.
2. Insufficient domestic manufacturing capability-
Manufacturers in India are not developing in-
11 Unlike a commercial user where expected hours of usage can be more than 4 hours a day, a residential user averages just 3-4 hours a day. The
hours of usage also widely vary depending on the power supply in each state and the socio-economics of the household.
12 Refer Section E.4, the domestic electricity tariff is very low (Rs 1.2 to 5.6) as compared to a much higher commercial sector tariff (Rs 4 to 11).