The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is in parleys with the Union Finance Ministry to work out a model of finance for innovative ideas in the energy saving space. The Bureau is working on framing policies and procedures to facilitate industry achieve higher levels of energy efficiency.

Ajay Mathur, Director-General of BEE, Ministry of power, said providing funding for ideas and making them successful products was an important aspect of the overall initiative to energy conservation. Most ideas or even products do not make it big due to lack of funds. Therefore, a corpus towards encouraging such ideas will be helpful, he felt.

Speaking at the 12th Energy Efficiency Summit 2013 organised by the Confederation of Indian industry, Mathur said most of the innovation and research outcomes do not translate into products.

Emphasising on the importance of the focus on energy efficiency, he said the Performance, Achive and Trade (PAT) scheme has encouraged process industries to focus on energy savings. The scheme started on April 1, 2012 has identified 478 industries with immense potential to save on energy by 2015.

Referring to the Star-rating for products, he said it is proposed to bring some more products under mandatory rating norms by next year. These could be television sets and geysers. Alongside this, the existing rating structure of air-conditioners will be upgraded by January 2014.

Andrew McAllister, British Deputy High Commissioner, said energy and development are closely linked in the process of mitigating the risks of climate change. He said that the UK was the first country to enact the climate change legislation. The low carbon agenda is driving global economy.

Naushad Forbes, Chairman, Energy Efficiency Summit, emphasised the need to focus on energy efficiency right from plant design and all through to operations and maintenance. Combing these with favourable policies will help realise the targets of PAT scheme as well as move towards global standards.

 

rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

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