Seven border villages lit up with LED technology due to “Bright Border”

Seven border villages of Armenia and Artsakh have been lit up with LED technology at the “Bright Border” initiative. As the organization reports in a release, the initiative aims to sooth the burden of electricity charges and showcase the possibilities of affordable electricity to the public through installing free of charge LED technology.

Hayk Harutyunyan, RA Minister of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources,  spoke to reporters on Tuesday, saying he has installed LED bulbs himself in his house and has seen a 30-40 percent decline in electricity consumption.

“In border villages, the energy saving is even more noticeable, considering the electrical devices are not that many there to compare with urban settlements,” the Minister noted, reminding of the pilot program that was adopted by the government in 2015.

The initiative has launched in November 2016 and by means of crowd funding the organizers have collected donations worth 21 billion AMD, purchasing and installing in total 8000 LED bulbs in around 2000 households of the border villages, with families saving up to 4000 AMD electricity monthly.

The minister noted “Electric Networks of Armenia” CJSC acted as the first donator, followed by the Government of Armenia, energy companies, NGOs, international structures as well as numerous individuals.

In his words, once in a two week one village is being lit up, according to the plan

“Our primary aim is to light up villages of the all 36 border communities of Armenia and Artsakh through installing LED technology. It is hard to set a certain deadline for the completion of the initiative since the works heavily depend on donation,” the Minister noted, adding the pace will be kept up given also the ongoing decline in the prices of the LED bulbs.