Agency to distribute free power-saving bulbs to households this week

AMMAN — Households across Jordan are expected to start receiving LED (light emitting diode) power-saving bulbs for free as of this week as part of a national scheme to distribute 1 million bulbs by 2020, according to the official in charge of the project.

A total of 15 NGOs across the country’s 12 governorates will start the distribution of the first batch of LED bulbs, Rasmi Hamzeh, executive director of Jordan Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Fund (JREEEF), told The Jordan Times recently.

Each of the NGOs will distribute 1,500 power-saving bulbs and each house will get five bulbs for free, he said.

“This is just the beginning of the national plan and by 2020 at least one million bulbs will be already distributed,” Hamzeh said, adding that the fund is set to sign more agreements over the coming weeks with several NGOs across the Kingdom for the distribution of the light bulbs to cover more areas.

The project, funded by a JD6 million grant from JREEEF, will be implemented in cooperation with the country's three power distribution companies, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Hamzeh added that his agency will work on several plans in the near future to execute a four-year strategy to support several public agencies and NGOs in installing power-saving bulbs and projects to generate electricity from renewable sources.

Jordan imports about 97 per cent of its energy needs annually at about 20 per cent of the gross domestic product.

Renewable energy contribution to the overall grid in Jordan stands at around 3 per cent at preset and the Kingdom is implementing a wide array of projects in the field to increase the contribution to 10 per cent by 2020.

JREEEF was established under the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Law in 2012 as an entity functioning under the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. 

The basic purpose of JREEEF is to secure the funding necessary for the exploitation of renewable energy sources and the rationalisation of energy consumption, according to its website. 

Bad quality bulbs 

Hamzeh claimed that a large percentage of LED bulbs sold in the Kingdom are of bad quality. He even went into describing them as “rubbish”.

"The fund would soon start a campaign to crack down on stores selling these rubbish LED bulbs because, unfortunately, the market is full of such items," he said.

The crackdown campaign will be implemented in cooperation with the Standards and Meteorology Department and the Royal Scientific Society, Rasmi said, adding that the campaign will be coupled with an awareness campaign to educate the public on good quality power-saving bulbs and the significance of using them to reduce their monthly electricity bill.

User complaints

“At my house in Jubeiha, I have more than 20 power-saving light bulbs and the quality is just bad. I have to change them almost every month,” Mohammad Ali, a sales manager at an air conditioning company, told The Jordan Times Saturday.

“Unfortunately, dealers just want to make quick profits and disregard our right as consumers to have the best quality our money can buy,” Ali said.

Seif Qaddoumi said he has been using such bulbs at his house for more than two years. “I noticed a considerable drop in my electricity bill after using these bulbs. But the money I saved from less power consumption went to buying more bulbs.”

Qaddoumi called on authorities to ban the import of low quality items into the domestic market.

"It is unfair because I buy a light bulb for around JD3 to JD4. This is not cheap and sometimes I have to change some of them every month or two,” he added.