Ukrainian government approves EU-backed programme to swap incandescent bulbs for LEDs

On 10 January, the Ukrainian government approved an EU-supported programme for the population to replace incandescent light bulbs with light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs. 

The programme is expected to be launched at the end of January, and the mass rollout will be preceded by beta-testing in the Diia application.

This project will be implemented by the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Digital Transformation, and Ukrposhta with support from the European Union. It is deployed as an instrument to save energy, increase resilience against the energy crisis and enable reduction of peak-hour electricity consumption.

According to Ukrenergo, 40-60% of power is consumed by households. At the same time, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy, Ukrainian households still use significant quantities of incandescent light bulbs that on average consume eight times more electricity than modern LED light bulbs.

The programme foresees that every Ukrainian will be able to exchange five incandescent light bulbs for five LED light bulbs. The European Union will fund 30 million LED bulbs.

The exchange of incandescent bulbs for new LED bulbs will take place at Ukrposhta offices. A test version of the exchange programme will begin on 16 January, and then it will be launched throughout Ukraine. 

The first batch of 15 million light bulbs will be delivered gradually in the coming weeks. In order to save electricity, regional centres and big cities will be the first to receive them. By the end of February, the bulbs should reach even the smallest villages.

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Press release