The Jakarta administration is planning to replace all over 200,000 streetlamps in Jakarta with low-energy lightbulbs in a bid to conserve energy.

Chief of the Jakarta Industry and Energy Agency Haris Pindratno said as of 2015, the agency expects to replace 4,000 lightbulbs with LED lamps.

Despite initial high cost, LED bulbs save energy and have durability of lasting up to 11 years, Haris said.

The new bulbs are expected to cut the city’s street lighting cost by half, according to the agency chief.

The measure stemmed from a 2008 gubernatorial decree instructing all Jakarta agencies to find ways to cut energy and water consumption.

Newly inaugurated Vice President Jusuf Kalla has proposed plans to cut down energy use, saying that the air-conditioning at all office buildings and shopping malls should be set at a uniform 25 Celsius degrees.

There are 222,342 streetlamps across the capital, of which 15,000 have been fitted with solar-powered LED lightbulbs in the last two years.-VNA