With the aim of reducing power consumption and the electricity charges at its main office in Town Hall, the Coimbatore Corporation has begun energy audit.
According to sources, the audit, being executed by a group of professionals from Chennai, will study the equipment installed, energy consumption pattern, how efficient is the Corporation in using the installed equipment, etc.
The study is two weeks old, sources in the civic body say and add that the group is likely to submit its report in a week. Sources privy to the draft report say that the group has a list of 56 points for the Corporation to work on. If the Corporation accepts and implements the proposals in the report it will lead to power conservation between seven-and-a-half to 20 per cent for it.
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In terms of money, it will lead to substantial savings because the Corporation spends nearly Rs. 2 lakh on power charges a month.
Points in the report include better light management, efficient use of generator, etc. Based on the report, the Corporation is likely to go in for solar panels to generate electricity to supply to the Tangedco grid and receive power from the same.
The sources say that after going through the energy audit, the Corporation will clearly know the right number of panels it needs to install to generate power. If it did not go in for the audit, the Corporation would have installed more panels than necessary.
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Solar concentrators
As a follow up to the energy audit, the civic body is also mulling options to install solar concentrators on anganwadis and noon-meal centres in Corporation schools.
The objective is to bring down LPG consumption.
By installing the concentrators the civic body will be able to cook food for 60 persons in an hour and thereby save one-and-a-half to two cylinders a day a centre, sources said.