The Chief Workshop Manager’s Administrative Office building inside the Golden Rock Railway Workshop premises here has been given a “four-star” rating by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Power, for achieving energy efficiency.
This is the first railway workshop office in the Indian Railway network to have received a “four-star rating” from the BEE. The “four-star” rating was given to the Chief Workshop Manager’s (CWM) Administrative Office building a few days ago to notify that the building was energy efficient.
The “four-star” rating was the outcome of a series of measures initiated by the workshop authorities in 2009 to substantially bring down energy consumption in the double storey CWM’s administrative office building, whose total area is 5,365 square metres. The building with a connected electrical load of 237.5 KW houses the chamber of the CWM besides accommodating offices of several senior workshop officials and a centralised computer centre.
Energy consumption in the administrative office building which was 3.27 lakh units in 2008 was brought down to 2.75 lakh units in 2009 thus enabling the workshop to save a whopping Rs. 2 lakhs in just one year. Listing out the measures taken to bring down energy consumption, a senior workshop official told ‘The Hindu’ that energy efficient tube lamps numbering over 500 were installed replacing the existing lamps inside the administrative building.
In addition to fixing 135 energy efficient ceiling fans replacing the existing ones, the authorities also installed energy savers for the air-conditioned plants. The administrative building has a total number of 22 window type air-condition machines.
Further the temperature level at the centralised air-conditioned plant was kept at optimum level, said the official adding that the energy consumed was 51.39 units per square metre in 2009. To achieve a “four-star” rating, the Energy Performance Index should be 45 – 55 units per square metre per year, he said. The workshop informed the BEE about the energy conservation measures taken in the administrative building attaching with it necessary documents in order to attain a star rating. The intimation from the BEE came in February last week.
Having achieved a “four-star” rating, the workshop authorities have planned to initiate more energy conservation measures in order to attain a “five-star” rating in the near future. In Southern Railway jurisdiction alone, there are five workshops – Golden Rock Railway Workshop, Tiruchi; Carriage Works, Perambur in Chennai; Loco Works, Perambur, Signal and Telecommunication Workshop, Podhanur near Coimbatore and Engineering Workshop at Arakkonam.
