Energy consumption in the State has gone up on “an unprecedented scale,” Energy Secretary P.W.C. Davidar said on Friday.
Addressing a press conference along with Principal Secretary of Environment and Forests Debendranath Sarangi and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Chairman C.P. Singh, the Energy Secretary said the consumption, which was of the order of 38,000 million units (MU) during the financial year of 2003-2004, went up to around 53,000 MU during 2008-2009. So, energy conservation had assumed relevance. On the power saving measures undertaken in government offices, Mr. Singh conceded that against the targeted 10 per cent reduction in the initial phase, seven per cent to eight per cent was achieved.
On the status of implementation of the Bachat Yojana Lamp (BYL) scheme in the State, he said that though an agency was chosen to take up the scheme in Villupuram and Coimbatore districts on an experimental basis, it dropped out subsequently. The Board recently floated fresh bids and it hoped to finalise the selection in a month or 45 days. He acknowledged that cost was a critical issue.
Under the scheme, the replacement of inefficient bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) is promoted by leveraging the sale of certified emission rights (CERs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.
Mr. Sarangi along with Mr. Davidar and Mr. Singh appealed to the public to observe Earth Hour on Saturday by switching off non-essential lights between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m.
Quoting the figures of the Forest Survey of India, undertaken in 2005, he said the forest cover in the State was 17.89 per cent and tree cover 4.23 per cent, totalling 22 per cent. He added that his department was covering denuded or degraded forests under its afforestation programme. Besides, it was taking steps to increase the tree cover [outside forest]. It had urged owners of private follow land to take to tree cultivation and the response was positive.
