The Director General of the Cities and Villages Development Bank, Osama Al-Azzam, said that the energy efficiency project is one of the most important projects implemented for the benefit of the municipalities to help them save on the energy bill by replacing the traditional lighting units in the municipal streets with energy-saving LED units.

Al-Azzam assured the Jordan News Agency (Petra), today, Saturday, that the project is being implemented in cooperation between the Ministry of Local Administration, the Cities and Villages Development Bank and the Ministry of Energy, at a cost of 65 million dinars, noting that the rural fils in the Ministry of Energy contribute to paying half of the cost of the project at 5 million annually. For a period of 7 years, and the other half is financed by the Bank as a loan to be repaid by the municipalities, and that the repayment period represents twice the cost recovery period for the project.

He added that the economic feasibility of the project is represented in the annual savings in electricity consumption of about 20 million dinars, between electricity and maintenance bills.

Al-Azzam indicated that the role of the bank comes as a guarantee for the payment of all financial dues of the tenderers, as it is a major and pivotal role in encouraging companies to implement and finance.

He stressed the importance of the energy efficiency project to help municipalities save on the energy bill by replacing 410 thousand traditional lighting units in municipal streets with energy-saving LED units installed by electricity distribution companies within their concession areas, which facilitated work procedures and is expected to increase to 600 thousand units. almost.

The project also aims, according to Al-Azzam, in addition to reducing the costs of electricity bills that burden municipal budgets, and raising the level of lighting, to reduce carbon emissions by 87,941.3 tons, as well as to save energy expenditure.

He pointed out that energy costs constitute about 20 percent of municipal expenditures, which will reflect positively on the quality of services provided to citizens and the local community.

And the general manager of the bank continued, that with regard to the stages of implementing the project, the Kingdom was divided into four geographical regions, and the concession areas of the electricity distribution companies were taken into account by issuing four bids.

He pointed out that the locally-made lighting units are characterized by high quality and international specifications, as they are designed according to the capacity of the streets to achieve the highest level of lighting that serves people, movement and traffic and contributes to reducing traffic accidents. They can also be used for smart cities in the future because they are equipped to install smart applications on them to control the intensity of lighting. , and can be used to strengthen the Internet networks.