— Himamshu Prasad,
President & CEO, GE Lighting India
GE Lighting is focused on developing energy-efficient solutions that
change the way people light their world. In India GE Lighting is
headquartered in Bangalore and has regional offices nationwide. GE
Lighting offer a complete range of lighting products for various
applications such as retail, commercial, industrial, roadway,
stadiums etc. We have
Himamshu Prasad discussing in detail the
energy efficiency of LED vis-à-vis conventional lighting methods. He
also explains why LED is a powerful solution to energy-deficient
India’s illumination needs. An interview by
Venugopal Pillai.
Please illustrate the efficiency of LED lighting vis-à-vis other
common forms of lighting like CFL and incandescent lighting.
In general, an LED light bulb can achieve significant energy
savings compared to a similar light output incandescent lamp. As
an example, GE 9 watts, LED bulb can save 77 per cent energy
while producing nearly the same light output as a 40-watt
incandescent bulb. It provides a soft white light (3,000K) and 471
lumens, a light-output measurement that makes it an excellent 40-
watt incandescent replacement. Based on three hours of usage
per day, the bulb is rated to last over 22 years, or more than 25
times as long as a 40-watt incandescent bulb.
The lifecycle efficiency notwithstanding, the high cost of LED is
being seen an entry barrier of sorts. What is your view?
You are correct but the barrier is getter smaller by the day. The
LED chip, one of the main cost components of an LED lighting
system, is getting more efficient and less expensive as the
volumes are scaling up. This is helping bring the overall cost of the
system down and we are seeing several applications where
customers do not perceive capital expenditure as a barrier
anymore.
Please take us through the range of LED lighting systems made by
GE Lighting in India.
Since 1962 when GE illuminated the first visible LED, we have been
continuously investing in the development of LED lighting
technology. Today GE lighting offers a complete range of LED
lighting products for various applications including retail,
commercial, roadway, industrial, signage, refrigeration,
transportation, and residential. These include products from our
global portfolio as well as locally designed and developed
products for the Indian market.
We understand that GE Lighting caters to diverse user-segments
like industry, commercial establishments, stadiums, street
lighting, etc. Which segments would be your main business drivers
in the medium term?
For LEDs, in the medium term, our focus areas are commercial,
retail and street lighting.
Does GE Lighting intend to make LED lights for the residential
segment, which is to say LED lamps to be used as replacement for
GLS/CFL by homeowners? Yes. We offer a complete range of LED lamps for the
residential segment globally. We are yet to launch
these in India and are working on initial plans.
Through its offices and other infrastructure, the
government is a big consumer of lighting products.
Do you feel that the government must compulsorily
go in for energy-efficient lighting solutions like LED?
Lighting consumes about 20 per cent of all the
electricity generated in India. In India, there is still a
massive gap between the power generation and
demand leading to frequent planned and unplanned
power cuts. If majority of the lighting load in India
shifts to energy-efficient lighting, this will alleviate the load on the
power grid. The long life, lower maintenance and lower lifecycle
cost of LED lighting will also generate additional savings for the
government.
Tell us how GE Lighting tropicalize its LED products to suit Indian
conditions.
GE Lighting’s products have been designed to specifically suit the
harsh environmental conditions in India. For example: Higher
Ingress Protection (IP 66) with Pressure Die Cast construction
has been incorporated to protect the LED system from rains and
dust, and wide input voltage drivers are used to handle significant
voltage swings.
The Indian LED lighting market appears to have got
quite crowded with products available at several
price points. What is your view?
The market is indeed crowded but not all LED
products are the same in terms of performance.
There are two things which one should keep in mind
while deciding on which product to purchase: (a)
whether the lower priced products meet their
declared specification out of the box and (b) whether
the product maintains its performance
characteristics over the rated life.
At GE we follow the six-sigma methodology and
use the 10-step Design for Reliability (DFR) process.
This allows us to ‘design in’ a specified level of reliability into our
products that takes into account various stress conditions the
product will see over its lifetime in a real world application. Our
rigorous testing protocol helps us validate that the product will
perform as designed over its rated life. Testing is a useful tool to
help validate product robustness, but ‘design for reliability’ helps
ensure that the product will perform as expected over time.
How do you perceive the growth of Indian LED lighting industry and
how do you foresee the growth of GE Lighting in India?
The growth of the Indian LED lighting industry has been robust
projected to be growing at 40+ per cent year-over-year basis. GE
Lighting expects to outpace the market growth by 2-3 times.