Ukrposhta swaps 1 million new LED bulbs for old ones under Ukraine-EU program
Ursula von der Leyen at Ukrposhta (Photo:Igor Smelyansky via Telegram)
Ukraine’s state-owned Ukrposhta postal service has already handed over one million LED lightbulbs to Ukrainians in exchange for old incandescent bulbs under a joint program between the European Union and Ukraine’s government, the company reported on Feb. 4.
The EU and government launched the joint program on Jan. 31. Ukrposhta said that thanks to the EU’s assistance, the first four million LED bulbs had been delivered to regional centers and large cities.
Over 162,000 bulbs have already been swapped in Kyiv, over 80,000 in Kharkiv, 88,000 in Dnipro, and 69,000 in Lviv.
“The statistics we see mainly include people who came to Ukrposhta offices without prior registration,” said Ukrposhta CEO Ihor Smilyanskyi.
“Of course, there were more people who wanted to exchange (incandescent) bulbs during the week: those who registered in the Diia mobile app started receiving confirmation of the exchange only from (Feb.1), some have already come to the post offices, and some will receive (LED) bulbs next week.”
According to Smilyanskyi, it will be possible to swap incandescent bulbs at Ukrposhta branches in all cities and towns, not only in regional centers.
This week, another six million LED bulbs will be available in regional centers, and thanks to Ukrposhta’s mobile offices, the bulbs will be delivered to rural areas by late February.
“Thus, at the first stage, Ukrainian citizens will be able to swap up to 20 million light bulbs in the next month or a month-and-a-half,” Smilyanskyi said.
According to previously announced estimates, the replacement of incandescent bulbs with 50 million LED ones will reduce the power deficit by approximately 1 GW. The EU will provide Ukraine with 30 billion LED bulbs, while another 5 million bulbs are expected separately from France.
Earlier, the European Commission vowed to finance the purchase of about 30 million LED bulbs for Ukraine. The program kicked off on Jan. 30, under which Ukrainians can swap five old incandescent bulbs for LED ones for free.
Ukraine’s Economy Ministry explained the relevant step would help reduce electricity consumption by 7-10% at times of peak load on the power grid.
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