“I have seen the recurrent problems around street lights in my city. Streetlights are indeed essential, but they are also a source of excess electricity wastage,” says 15-year-old Niket Girdhar, from the DC Model Senior Secondary School, Ferozepur Cantt, Punjab.

This problem got him thinking and gave birth to the Dynamic Street Lighting System. He, along with Jagtar Singh and Ankush Wadhwa, spent over five months to create a successful prototype of a sensor-based street light system, which light up only when needed.

To ensure zero wastage of electrical energy, this street light system smartly senses the crowd and adjusts the intensity of light accordingly. For instance, for a huge crowd of people approaching the street, the lights generate 80% intensity, but for just two people crossing the area, it would be dimmer and comfortable enough to guide them.

The team understood that every year the municipal corporation in Ferozepur spends Rs 5 crore on street lights alone. But with the use of their street light system, they feel the city will be able to save 40% of the energy consumption and approximately Rs 2 crore.

“Owing to its relevance, we understand this is a problem not just here but all over the country. We hope to take this innovation to other parts of the country and help India save a significant amount of money in electricity consumption,” says Niket.