“Cheap electricity, rising incomes and badly designed buildings that trap heat have led to the adoption of energy-intensive active cooling practices in the Capital,” states an analysis done on power consumption patterns of Delhiites by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Its findings also indicate that the households in the Capital are the biggest energy guzzlers of electricity.
The analysis also takes a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party government for keeping a large bracket of power consumers under the 50 per cent subsidy scheme. “The amount of electricity that is subsidised for each household is more than the average consumption in Delhi and the country. No wonder Delhi has consumed more electricity last year than all the other metros put together,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE’s executive director-research and advocacy and head of its Sustainable Urbanisation programme.
Trends & nature
The CSE analysis of electricity consumption this summer attempts to understand the trends and nature of demand in the city and the likely impacts of the growing dependence on air conditioning to escape the heat. The report said lack of energy-efficiency measures is making Delhi an energy guzzler..
Besides, the Capital witnesses nearly the same peak demand for electricity during day and night indicating enormous impact of air conditioners in middle-class homes. “The day peak builds up late in the afternoon around 3:30 PM and the second peak hits around midnight. There was barely any difference between night and day peaks during the month of May. For example, on May 24, while the day peak demand was 4667 MW the night peak demand was 5091 MW,” she said adding that growing reliance on air conditioning upsets the energy balance in the city.
The CSE suggested Delhi government should introduce mandatory energy audit and consumption based energy billing to improve operational efficiency of all buildings. Also that it should make it obligatory for all buildings to disclose publicly the data on annual energy usage along with the built up area.
Govt must mandate energy audits, compulsory disclosure of annual energy consumption
COMMents
SHARE