Can I use electric lights for Shabbos Candles?

Question:

Can I fulfill the obligation of Shabbos candles with electric lights?

Discussion:

Many poskim say that using electric lights is just as good as lighting with a candle and one is even permitted to make a bracha on them lichatchela (among them are Rav C.O. Grodzenski). However, there are poskim (Rav Moshe zt”l among others) that are of the opinion that one should not use electric lights to fulfill the mitzvah. Even according to this opinion if one is in a situation where they have no choice but to use electric lights one should use them but without reciting a bracha.  

A question which arises according to the first opinion is if I can fulfill my obligation with electric lights then why am I allowed to make a bracha on my “Shabbos Candles” if I have regular lights on in the house since these “Shabbos Candles” are not adding anything to my oneg Shabbos? One solution that is given to this problem is to shut off the lights in the room where you are lighting candles and then turn them on again with the intention of the mitzvah. One can then make the bracha on both the candles and the lights (both Rav Moshe and Rav Yaakov zt”l held this way). Another similar option is to first light the candles and then have someone else turn on the regular lights this way at the time of lighting the candles were a necessity (Rav S.Z. Aurebach zt”l).

There are some poskim that say that lighting candles themselves are a part of kavod Shabbos since one shows honor to Shabbos by lighting candles; similar to the way we light candles when we invite guests or at other affairs. Therefore one is permitted to make a bracha on them (Klausenberger Rav zt”l). A similar idea is that since custom has attached value to lighting special candles for Shabbos it becomes part of honoring Shabbos to light them. Therefore, a bracha may be recited (Rav Moshe Shternbauch shlit”a).