ESCOM Public Relations Manager Kitty Chingota told Zodiak Online on Tuesday that the initial free distribution and current selling of the energy saver bulbs initiative has consequently reduced the customers energy bill as well as making available spare capacity for new customer connections.

"Through the project we have managed to save 23 mega watts which is quite a lot. The project has been very successful and as ESCOM we are very excited and moving on. The LED bulbs consume less energy but they produce very bright light so it has also be helpful on the part of customers in terms of bills," Chingota said.

She added that the Corporation will continue selling the bulbs in its shops at a lower price.

Some six years ago, ESCOM rolled out a K5 billion energy saving project where it was replacing high energy consuming incandescent bulbs with very low energy consuming LED bulbs.

Energy expert Dr. Suzgo Kaunda is proposing the enhanced civic education among Malawians on the need to use the bulbs, find ways of reducing its costs and ensure their accessibility in rural areas.

"We have to make sure that we popularise it, we spread the message about the importance of the energy sever bulbs. Secondly, we can try to see how to reduce the costs so that they are affordable to the people in rural areas. On the same, we should also ensure work on distribution so that are available in rural areas," he said.

In the project, ESCOM installed 1.2 million LED bulbs with an estimated energy saving of around 30 MW and reduced customer bills as LED bulbs last longer and consume less energy than other bulbs.

Meanwhile, Chingota has indicated that soon the Corporation will roll out the LED tubes project which targets government and commercial establishments to complement the initiative which is on-going.