Sirsa district of Haryana has become the first district in India to be running 100% on CFLs (Compact Fluroscent Lamps). It came as an outcome of a campaign to replace incandescent bulbs with energy efficient CFLs and was initiated by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) in May last year.

It was a door to door campaign in which more than 100 teams of DHBVN employees as well as the general manager participated to persuade its consumers to replace their traditional yellow bulbs with CFLs. They also organized camps and stall in villages and towns to help people understand the advantages of using CFLs as it would lead to reduction in electricity consumption and minimize their bills.

This initiative was started with the Kalanwali village which has a population of 2000 approximately. Subsequently, other villages like Rania and Ellanabad too became a part of this campaign and are now CFL dependent. Also, all Government offices are said to have replaced the traditional bulbs with CFLs. Thus, Sirsa has indeed become the first 100% CFL district.

The monthly electricity bills of Sirsa have been reduced by about Rs.9 crore after the usage of CFLs. This has been a result of saving about 40% of electricity and 60MW of power each month in the district. This would mean that if the entire state was to adopt the same policy approximately about Rs.180 crore could be saved each month. After the whopping success of this campaign in Sirsa, DHBVN is looking at replacing the entire lighting system of Haryana because of the cost effectiveness of CFLs. But, it is a difficult task at hand as people living in urban areas are skeptical to this idea.