WINDHOEK, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's power utility, NamPower will commence this month with the second phase of the "1mLED campaign," following the conclusion of the first phase in June 2017, which saw 452,369 LED bulbs distributed across the country.

The 1mLED campaign is a project which was launched in 2016 with the aim to see a nationwide free installation of nearly 1 million LED bulbs to reduce the power demand during peak hours.

NamPower Managing Director, Kahenge Haulofu, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday that the project, which falls under the Short-term Critical Supply Program is specifically targeting households that have been not received bulbs during the initial phase of the campaign.

According to him, a total of 56 towns, settlements and villages from all regions will be covered during the second phase.

Haulofu said NamPower has been inundated by requests for bulbs from the general public who have not benefited from the initial phase of the campaign.

"NamPower has a consignment of bulbs for households that have not benefited from the initial phase of the 1mLED campaign due to various reasons, which prompted the project team to initiate the second phase and distribute the remaining bulbs," he added.

According to Haulofu, NamPower appointed consultancy services of an independent, certified Measurement & Verification (M&V) company to determine the savings attained by the campaign.

"The process of verifying the savings achieved is methodological and requires time and resources to carry out. The M&V consultant delivered periodical reports on savings attained from Jan. 1, 2017 to May 31, 2017," he added.

Haulofu said that a total of 181,955 lighting retrofit claims were recorded and assessed and the equivalent peak time demand savings amounted to 2,460 MW.

"The full impact of the campaign is yet to be determined," he added.

Meanwhile, Haulofu said that the amount of power being imported depends on the local generation capacity, (power generated at Ruacana Hydro Power station), but current figures show that the power utility imports approximately 200 MW during peak hours.