Lauding the efforts of Andhra Pradesh in promoting and implementing various ‘energy-efficiency programmes’ across the State, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Director-General Abhay Bhakre has assured the government of extending the necessary support to its forthcoming projects, particularly the MSME sector.
Addressing the media on the sidelines of his maiden review of the ‘energy-efficiency activities’ in Andhra Pradesh here on Saturday, Mr. Bhakre emphasised on the need for ensuring uptake of energy efficiency in MSMEs, as it has displayed tremendous potential for interventions. “There are an estimated 4,000 MSME clusters across the country and among them 180 are energy intensive, consuming 22.7 million tonnes oil equivalent of energy. Introducing proper interventions across the clusters, leading to substantial energy and cost savings, is the present challenge with us,” he asserted.
With respect to Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Bhakre said the BEE would support the State in selection of the MSME clusters, so as to assess the energy usage and technological gap at unit level, besides developing cluster-specific energy efficiency manuals, preparation of ‘Detailed Project Reports’ (DPRs) on energy efficient technologies and capacity building of manpower involved in the sector. Mr. Bhakre said they would hold several such reviews to evaluate energy efficiency models, best practices, financing mechanisms etc., currently in implementation, and see how they can be replicated elsewhere in the country. He also elicited the support of every State and Union Territory to put in efforts for implementing ‘energy efficiency and conservation’ projects.
Mr. Bhakre later spoke on various energy efficiency activities formulated by the BEE such as Standards and Labelling Programme, Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) – the concept being implemented by AP government in Amaravati for building the first ‘Super ECBC model’ in the country, and others.
