10.7 BILLION KILO WATT HOURS ENERGY SAVED IN LAST TWO YEARS

The Union Minister for Power, Shri Sushilkumar Shinde has said that Government of India is committed to evolving a credible and sustainable national energy efficiency agenda to stimulate a market transformation in favour of energy efficient technologies and products.

Shri Shinde informed that the impact of the policies and programmes of Government of India on energy efficiency, duly verified by an independent agency has shown that during 2007-08 and 2008-09, the savings in energy were about 10.7 billion kilo watt hours, equivalent to an avoided capacity addition of 2128 MW.

Shri Shinde representing India in the Ministerial Forum of the International Energy Agency in Paris on 15th October 2009 delivered a key note address on Energy Efficiency.

The International Energy Agency is a body comprising 28 Member States which are mainly developed nations. In this Ministerial Meeting, non-members India, China and Russia have been invited as partners in dialogue. Shri Sushilkumar Shinde is leading the Indian delegation to this Ministerial Meeting wherein a joint statement between India and IEA outlining the roadmap for cooperation between India and IEA regarding Energy Security and Energy Efficiency was issued.

Mr. Shinde in a detailed intervention outlined various initiatives that India had taken towards increasing energy efficiency and thereby also ensuring environmental protection in line with the Indian National Action Plan on Climate Change released by the Prime Minister.

The Minister pointed out that the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) is one of the eight national missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change which seeks to upscale the efforts to create a market for energy efficiency which is estimated to be around Rs. 740 billions or over 10 billion Euros. The Mission seeks to create a conducive regulatory and policy regime to foster innovative and sustainable business models to unlock this market.

As a result of the implementation of this Mission over the next five years, it is estimated that about 23 million tonnes oil equivalent of fuel savings- in coal, gas, and petroleum products, will be achieved along with an expected avoided capacity addition of over 19,000 MW. The consequential carbon dioxide emission reductions are estimated to be 98.55 million tonnes annually.

Elaborating further the Minister informed that the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency seeks to implement an Action Plan based on four major initiatives. The first and probably the most important initiative is the Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme. This is a market based mechanism to enhance the cost effectiveness of improvements in energy efficiency in energy-intensive large industries and facilities, through certification of energy savings that could be traded.

He also said that the second proposed mechanism is the Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency (MTEE) to accelerate the shift to energy efficient appliances in designated sectors through innovative measures to make the products more affordable.

The Minister added that the third mechanism seeks to finance demand side management programmes in all sectors by capturing future energy savings. The proposed Energy Efficiency Financing Platform (EEFP) would help stimulate necessary funding for Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) based delivery mechanisms for energy efficiency.

We have already initiated several measures to unlock the market for ESCOs. One of the most significant is the ESCO project in the agriculture sector in Solapur district of Maharashtra. The project will replace the inefficient pumps of farmers with efficient 5 STAR rated pumps, at no cost to the farmer.

The costs are to be covered from the energy savings that will occur in the future. Another initiative, he said is the Framework for Energy Efficient Economic Development (FEEED) which seeks to develop fiscal instruments to promote energy efficiency through measures like the Partial Risk Guarantee Fund (PRGF) and Venture Capital Fund for Energy Efficiency (VCFEE), Public Procurement of energy efficient goods and services and Utility based Demand Side Management (DSM).

Elaborating steps taken by Government a demand side management, he informed that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has launched a scheme named Bachat Lamp Yojana that promotes replacement of inefficient bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) by leveraging the sale of Certified Emission Rights (CERs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Kyoto Protocol. Lighting, which accounts for about 25% of electricity consumption, has a significant potential for reduction of the load while not compromising on the lumen output by use of energy efficient lighting in place of incandescent bulbs.

In addition, Energy Conservation Building Code was introduced recently, the standards and labeling scheme for equipments like Air Conditioners, Refrigerators, Distribution Transformers, Fans, etc. has taken off.

India has engaged constructively in several international fora in the area of energy efficiency. Prominent amongst them are the IEA, where India is part of the Demand Side Management Implementing Agreement and became the first non-OECD country to pilot a Task. We have joined the IPEEC recently and look forward to the cooperative activities under it. (EOM)