Unique scheme for energy efficiency.

Byline: Saurabh Kumar

As the sun was setting on the previous fiscal year, the Ministry of Power and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) were quietly resurrecting a historic regulation for accelerating energy efficiency in the industrial sector. The set of notifications issued on March 30, 2012, requires 478 industries to achieve reductions in specific energy consumption by an average of 5 per cent during the next 3 years. This scheme is the first of its kind in a developing country.

PERFORM, ACHIEVE, TRADE

The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) mechanism, as the scheme is called, requires notified industries to invest in energy efficiency and reduce at least 5 per cent of input energy cost for self and public good. The savings in the first three years of the scheme are estimated at 9.8 million tonnes of oil equivalent of energy or approximately 9000 MW of avoided thermal power capacity, without compromising on the industrial output.

The direct benefits for the participating industries in this period is reductions in …