Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), which generates 4,400 units of solar power a day, recently pulled off a green energy feat by generating eight units of power from moon light.
It happened on a recent full moon night and showed that moonlight was good enough to generate power given the right conditions, said a CIAL official during a presentation on the airport company’s ambitious solar energy and energy conservation programmes.
Though the feat has not been repeated frequently, the moon power act is a big boost to the airport company’s efforts to achieve energy neutrality by early 2016.
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CIAL and the BSNL telephone exchange at Boat Jetty in the city are among the institutions in the district that have invested significantly in energy efficiency and are the winners of the State and National Energy Conservation Award 2013 respectively.
BSNL’s electrical chief engineer M. Suddheendran said improvements in the air-conditioning system and lighting at the Boat Jetty exchange were carried out at an expenditure of Rs. 6.25 lakh. The savings from the efforts were Rs. 20 lakh in electricity bills last year, he said. The savings in energy terms were 3.93 lakh units during 2012-13.
BSNL had been continuously monitoring its energy use in all its buildings over the last 15 years, said Mr. Sudheendran. BSNL Kerala is among the energy auditors recognised by Kerala Energy Management Centre and has carried out energy auditing in 15 buildings in the State including the High Court of Kerala building in the city.
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The energy efficiency measures included power factor improvement, replacing of old air-conditioning units, online power monitoring and elimination of UPS losses.
Meanwhile, CIAL, which has an actual power demand per day of 55,000 units, will rely heavily on LED systems for its future requirements. A total of 224 LED fittings will be deployed for lighting the road linking the airport to NH 47. LEDs have also been deployed in the terminals and administrative offices.
Energy use stands at 3.61 units per passenger at the airport, which saw 4.9 million passengers during 2012-13.