GREENWOOD -- The Delaware Electric Cooperative is planning to help poultry farmers in its service area convert from incandescent and compact fluorescent lights to the more energy-efficient LED lights.

LEDs use about 80 percent less energy than traditional poultry lights, the co-op noted. The co-op anticipates each six-flock poultry house will be able to save $983 per year by installing the lights.

The co-op will offer LED bulbs to poultry farmers for about $7 per bulb through the grant program. The bulbs typically cost about $35.

The co-op assigned $75,000 for the program in 2012, with $30,000 more coming from the Delaware Energy Efficiency Investment Fund. The fund is a state program collected through the Public Utilities Tax.

The fund was not expressly intended to be spent by utilities ---- other recipients include businesses doing efficiency projects ---- but "the co-op was really novel in bringing this proposal to us," said Carolyn Snyder, director of the state's Division of Energy & Climate.

The lights can last up to nine years, said Bill Andrew, co-op president and CEO.

Bill Roenigk, vice president of the National Chicken Council in Washington, said chickens tend to eat more when the lights are on. That, he said, makes the birds bigger more quickly. LED lighting will help farmers save money in that effort, he said.

"If we can reduce the amount of energy we need, I think that makes our industry more sustainable," Roenigk said.

To be eligible for a grant, poultry farmers must be within the Delaware Electric Cooperative region. If interest exceeds the available money, recipients will be chosen through a lottery system, the co-op reports.

The co-op will provide enough lights for only one poultry house per recipient. The grant money will not go toward installation.

Farmers will be able to pick up the bulbs at the co-op's headquarters in Greenwood.