Strengthen the energy efficiency sector by promoting energy efficiency investments—BEE,GoI advises all states
Vishakhapatnam, 02-02-23: As energy efficiency is considered to be a great tool to increase energy security, contribute towards country’s climate change targets and sustainability of energy in the future, the Union Ministry of power led Bureau of Energy Efficiency has advised all the State governments including Andhra Pradesh to put strong efforts to strengthen the energy efficiency sector by promoting energy efficiency investments in all the States to tap the country’s energy efficiency investment potential of Rs.10 lakh crore by 2031, said Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Abhay Bakre.
The BEE has set-up a Facilitation Centre with an aim to encourage and up-scale Energy Efficiency Financing in the country through collection of the willingness forms from large industries , Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Commercial and Institutional buildings, Municipalities, Corporations, and Commercial establishments to seek bank financing for investments in Energy Efficiency measures.
The BEE facilitation center has identified 73 energy efficiency financing projects from Pan-India in past couple of months out of which around 30 projects were identified from Andhra Pradesh itself and stood as front runner state in identifying energy efficiency financing projects. All SDAs shall have to put extra efforts to get the energy efficiency financing projects materialized, said DG BEE.
Stating the above, during the inaugural session of the regional review meeting of SDAs by BEE,GoI with major States including Andhra Pradesh Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Telangana etc., hosted by AP State Energy Conservation Mission(APSECM), SDA of Andhra Pradesh(AP) in Visakhapatnam on Thursday, the DG BEE Abhay bakre who participated virtually from New Delhi said that BEE has set an ambitious goal to save 150 million ton of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in all sectors by 2030 and asked all the SDAs to enforce and initiate meticulous energy efficiency policies/programs for reached the desired energy efficiency goals for which AP was given a target of 6.68 mtoe energy savings.
While reviewing the quarterly progress of the SDAs at Visakhapatnam, the Secretary of BEE R K Rai along with joint director of BEE Abhishek Sharma who visited Visakhapatnam physically for the review meeting said that the India’s target to achieve net zero emissions by 2070 can be achieved faster by sensitizing the consumers/stake holders particularly in key sectors of agriculture, industry, municipal and buildings, Micro small and medium enterprises(MSMEs) in particular etc for the conservation of energy and adoption of energy efficiency measures.
The Secretary BEE reviewed the status of unspent funds of all the SDAs and gave directions to all SDAs for utilizing the funds by March 2023. He emphasized that the Energy Clubs are essential to make the students understand the significance of Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency as students being the next generation citizens, can, in turn, become representatives for creating the more awareness of Energy Conservation& efficiency and promote the use of Energy Efficient appliances by the society at large scale for achieving energy security.
Secretary BEE who has received a report of energy efficiency investment projects in Andhra Pradesh from CEO APSECM A Chandra sekhara Reddy, director APEPDCL Ramesh Prasad and Joint Director BEE Abhishek Sharma, has given a target to Andhra Pradesh to constitute around 12,000 energy clubs i.e 20 percent out of the total 60,000 educational institutions (Public & private) present in the State. The BEE shall provide technical and necessary financial support for constituting the energy clubs.
Establishing energy clubs in educational institutions like schools, colleges, Polytechnic industrial training centres etc. is one of the platforms through which students of the same institution or other Institutions can interact with each other and deliberate on various aspects on Energy Conservation and promoting and implementing the Energy saving measures. He advised all other states to follow the Andhra Pradesh and Kerala model of Stand Alone SDAs for fast track implementation of energy efficiency programs in the States.
He said SDAs may undertake implementation of pilot projects that result in reducing fossil fuel consumption. These may include projects on electric cooking especially for establishments such as canteens of hospitals, tourism department, anganwadi, school/college hostels, Govt. departments, etc. where round-the-clock cooking is being carried out including solar projects for replacement of diesel/fossil fuel
He also suggested SDAs to engage with technical and research institutes and come up with projects catering to the needs of all economic sectors and seek proposals on different energy efficiency projects from all institutions and also asked SDAs to focus on Pilot projects involving energy efficiency improvements in different utilities such as pumps, furnaces, motors, etc. in industries /other establishments. “SDAs may also explore possibilities of carrying out demonstration projects in cold chain sector including pack-houses. States located in cold climatic zones have been advised to take up space heating projects especially based on heat pumps”, secretary BEE said.
While explaining the APSECM progress, the CEO APSECM said that AP has saved around 5600 Million Units of energy for the last few years worth of Rs. 3800 Crs in various sectors of the State. He also mentioned that the BEE facilitation center has identified around 30 energy efficiency projects whose project cost is estimated at Rs.400 crore in the sectors of cement, iron & steel, power plants, fertilizers, chemicals, textiles etc. He thanked BEE for their continuous persuasion with concerned Ministries for that the interest subvention scheme that could help attracting the entrepreneurs for implementing Energy Efficiency projects to meet the Energy efficiency objectives and benefit the State as well as Nation.
Senior executives Rajeev Gyani, Johnson Daniel , Smt Anandhi G, Manjunath, , Deepa Nair from SDAs of various States and Union Territories and BEE officials Meenal Anand, Vikash Jha, Gautam Anand have participated in the event.
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