‘Shortfall can be met with optimal use of energy’

The daily power blackout in several parts of India because of electricity shortfall could soon be history, if the country uses energy efficient-appliances, a government study has found, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Mar 16, 2010, 24:34:08 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The daily power blackout in several parts of India because of electricity shortfall could soon be history, if the country uses energy efficient-appliances, a government study has found.

A study by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), which implements energy efficiency policies, has found that India can save 75.36 billion kilowatt hour of power every year (two billion kw hours more than India’s energy shortfall).

India’s yearly power consumption is 577.5 billion kilowatt hour.

“The current power shortages can be significantly eased by tapping the large, uncovered potential in all areas,” the report said.

Seema Arora, head, climate and energy division at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), agrees with the report but says the government needs to promote energy efficiency proactively.

The study is based on energy audits of certain appliances in sample districts of all states.

The study says most energy efficiency projects have “paybacks between one to four years and can yield quick results,” while asking states to promote energy efficiency in a big manner.

And, two sectors — agriculture and domestic power — can contribute over 60 per cent of the total energy efficiency potential.

“Using energy efficient BEE star-labelled agriculture pumps could result in saving 50-52 per cent of energy consumption,” the report said.

Similarly, the study found that using energy efficiency appliances such as BEE-rated refrigerators, air-conditioners, lights and fans could reduce the monthly electricity bill by 28 to 38 per cent.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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