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All government offices in Karnataka will soon turn green. As part of the process of implementation of the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), all government buildings will be modified to be energy efficient, a government official said.
The government of Karnataka will work with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to modify government buildings, starting with the Vidhana Soudha, Guest Houses and the Civil Court to suit the requirements under the ECBC, Ms Shobha Karandlaje, Energy Minister of the Government of Karnataka said. With this, the State will try to save about 16 million units of energy everyday, she added.
“While a lot has been done by the government to promote use of LED lamps and energy efficient pump sets, we haven't done anything large enough to showcase to the rest of the country. So it is time to do this now,” she said, at a workshop on implementation of the ECBC organised by the BEE and Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL).
The ECBC is a document prepared under the Energy Conservation Act that specifies the energy performance requirements for all commercial buildings in India. Karnataka will be the tenth State in the country to implement the ECBC. The Act allows states to amend the ECBC to suit the requirements of the state, and Karnataka is in the process of making the amendments.
A draft ECBC has been prepared with the help of Mr Sanjay Seth, Energy Economist at BEE, Mr Vishal Garg of International Institute of Information Technology, and the Principal Chief Architect of KREDL. The document is currently under circulation for approval by different government departments before it is passed by the Cabinet.
As part of the implementation process, the BEE will be conducting training programmes for engineers, architects, contractors and members of the State public works department on designing energy efficient buildings and implementing energy conservation principles. These employees will be master trainers who then train the next rung of employees on energy efficient buildings.
Mr Ajay Mathur, Director General of BEE, said that this was one of the means to increase awareness about energy efficient buildings. “People don't construct energy efficient buildings as they aren't aware of the monetary benefits it offers,” he said, urging the Government to create awareness through examples. “We can take the example of a building consuming Rs 5 lakh worth of power, and show that after turning energy efficient, it consumes only Rs 3 lakh worth of power. People would then believe in the concept,” he pointed out.
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