Almost 3.5M Ukrainians swap old bulbs for LED

Since the start of the campaign, almost 3.5 million people in Ukraine have exchanged 16.5 million incandescent light bulbs for LEDs at the Ukrposhta national postal operator branches.

This is reported by Ukrinform with reference to Ukrposhta’s press service.

"Since the start of the program, almost 3.5 million residents of Ukraine have already exchanged 16.5 million bulbs at Ukrposhta branches. Kyiv region is the record holder for the exchange as residents across the region exchanged 2 million bulbs.

At the same time, from April 17, another 500 branches of JSC Ukrposhta will stop the exchange effort. From May 1, it will be possible to swap old incandescent bulbs for LEDs only in regional centers.

"From April 10, another 500 branches of Ukrposhta will no longer be available for ordering new light bulbs online. It will still be possible to exchange them at these brancges until April 17," the postal operator said.

As of April 7, some 7 million bulbs are available for exchange across the country. Another 5 million LED bulbs will arrive in Ukraine shortly.

The optimization of the exchange process is due to a decrease in demand among the population as the peak demand fell for February-March. Taking into account the weekly swap rates, a joint decision of all partners of the program was made to gradually reduce the number of Ukrposhta branches involved in the campaign, Ukrposhta explained.

As reported earlier, the program offering the Ukrainians to exchange their incandescent light bulbs for LEDs kicked off on January 31 in all regions of Ukraine, except for the war zone and temporarily occupied territories.

Ukrainians who are willing to pre-order new bulbs are offered to apply via Diia, the application for government e-services. Up to five old bulbs with any base can be swapped for the same number of LED bulbs.

The program is part of the European Union's support package for the Ukrainian energy system, aiming to provide Ukrainians with 50 million light bulbs free of charge. Financing for the purchase of 30 million lamps has already been provided by the EU, and for another 5 million pieces – by the French government.