Untitled - Ministry of Power

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ENERGY CONSERVATION
Energy conservation has emerged as one of the
central issues in the national economic agenda
in recent years. A potential of at least 23
percent reduction of energy consumption from
the present level is possible in different sectors,
without forgoing any of the end-use benefits of
energy. Society stands to gain from conservation
and improved energy efficiency, both in terms of
money saved by reducing energy costs in the
short run as well as reducing investment needs
for energy production in the long run.
ENERGY CONSERVATION ACT, 2001
Considering the vast potential of energy savings
and benefits of energy efficiency, the Govt. of
India enacted the Energy Conservation Act, 2001,
which has come into force with effect from March
2002. The Act provides necessary legal and
institutional framework to enable the government
to rapidly promote efficient use of energy and its
conservation in different sectors of the economy.
The Ministry of Power has also created, under
this Act, a central coordinating body called
Bureau of Energy Efficiency, which will be
responsible for promoting energy saving
measures.
The Ministry of Power and the Bureau of Energy
Efficiency has adopted self-regulation and market
based mechanism for promoting efficient use of
energy instead of resorting to command & control
system. A self-regulating mechanism cast more
responsibility on the stakeholders and they make
every effort to comply the provision of the Act,
particularly when it helps improving their business
and thus profitability.
Indian Industry Programme for Energy
Conservation (IIPEC)
BEE has taken an initiative to coordinate the
Indian Industry Programme for Energy
Conservation (IIPEC). The programme would
assist Indian Industry to improve competitiveness
through improved energy efficiency, as well as to
enable them to meet the mandatory provisions
of the EC Act.
Under IIPEC, the Task Forces have been formed
for sharing information and best practices in
Cement, Pulp and Paper, Textile, Fertilizer, Chlor-
Alkali, and Aluminium, Petrochemicals and Refinery
sectors. Best Practices on energy conservation
were collected and shared among members.
Presentation on “Best Practices” have been made
available on Bureau’s Website: www.bee-india.com
and www.energymanagertraining.com.
Chapter - 9
Energy Conservation
The Task Force members have taken voluntary
targets amounting to annual energy savings worth
more than Rs. 400 crores per annum.
STANDARDS & LABELLING (S&L)
PROGRAMME
Standards and labelling (S&L) programme has
been identified as one of the key activities for
energy efficiency improvements. For various
equipment and appliances of common use, there
is wide variation in energy consumption of
products made by different manufacturers.
Further, information on a product’s energy
consumption is often not easily available or easy
to understand. These factors lead to continued
manufacture and purchase of equipment and
appliances that are energy intensive and
inefficient.
The labelling programme, when in place, would
provide the much needed market pull for
transition from the current low level of energy
efficiency to a higher level. Minimum energy
performance standards will ensure that after the
kick-off date, no manufacturer can sell a specified
product if it does not conform to the minimum
standards. This will assure increase in efficiency
level of domestic appliances and engineering
products.
To begin with, the following equipment and
appliances have been selected for being covered
under S&L:
Refrigerators with or without low temperature
compartment
Room air conditioner (unitary)
Electric motors up to 100 KW
Agricultural pumpsets including horizontal
centrifugal pumps, mono set pumps and
submersible pumpsets up to 15 KW
Electric light sources, control gears and
luminaries including tubular fluorescent
lamps, inductive type ballasts, electronic
ballasts, luminaries and Compact
Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs)
Distribution Transformers
Bureau of Energy Efficiency has initiated
the programme activities for the selected
equipment and appliances. Energy labeling
will be introduced first followed by minimum
energy performance standard.
Market research for label design and
baseline of current products has been
conducted.