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It is a fact that fossil fuels were the engines of growth in the Twentieth century. And in this Twenty-First century, it will be the non-renewable energy sources along with alternative fuel systems like fuel cells etc. which will drive the world economy at large. This is more true for India, as it is becoming the fourth largest energy consumer of the world and it is ranked sixth in the world in terms of the electricity consumption. Till India become somewhat self-reliant in energy, the next decade of gap between the demand and availability of power and electricity will be governed by the fact how much India can save the electricity as the gestation period for newer sources of electricity is long. The fact tells the same story. Like, with 11 per cent peak demand shortages and 7 per cent energy shortages in India, the shift should be towards overall energy efficiency.
As energy is an essential input for social and economic development, and it is vital to the quality development of rural areas, so “Energizing India means a sustained campaign for energy conservation’ as underlined by the Minister of Power, Shri P M Sayeed in the recent national level workshop on energy conservation at New Delhi.
As India is focusing on “Power for all” by 2012, the various measures should involve all stakeholders with a multi-sectoral approach which can cover all including, domestic consumers, industrial consumers and Government sector for realizing the vast potential for energy conservation. As per estimates, there is energy saving potential of 23 per cent in all sectors of economy without forgoing any end use, and which can be achieved through energy efficiency and conservation. Already a comprehensive awareness creation programme for energy conservation has been launched at the national level by the Ministry of Power considering the ground reality that fifty six percent of our rural households do not have access to electricity. So any saving potential can brighten the lives of teeming millions in rural areas.
Energy conservation assumes special significance due to limited sources of energy in the country and our heavy dependence on imports for this purpose which is going to increase more in the near future. Geographically, while the resources for power generation are limited to certain areas, demand is spread across the country. Considering the low incomes of the majority of India’s population, it is very difficult for them to afford the high cost of energy. Simultaneously, energy prices will rise in the long run to reflect their relative scarcity and high cost of exploration and extraction making for the ever-increasing fuel costs for power generating units in India.
Therefore, the need of the hour is the avoidance of the wasteful use of energy which arises due to lack of awareness among the public, non-availability of appropriate technology, non-availability of quality instruments, economic and market weaknesses, lack of resources, theft of electricity, free power policy and inappropriate architectural designs which ignore the availability of natural light and air.
Thus, the solution lies in national yet focused and holistic approach which can be sustained through awareness driven energy conservation programme which has the significant potential to reduce the fresh investments in energy supply systems in coming years. This objective can be contributed by everyone from a household to a factory, i.e. by every user and by every producer of electricity in the country.
To give impetus to the task at hand, Government of India enacted the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 which is trying to promote competition in sharing information and most importantly on motivating the various stakeholders. Under the Act, a statutory organization ‘Bureau of Energy Efficiency’ is implementing the provisions of the Act by focusing on ‘sharing the best practices approach’ and it is continuously working toward specific energy targets for 8 sectors of industry which includes aluminum, cement, alkali, fertilizer, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, refinery and textiles sectors that consume most of the electricity.
The work on the national campaign is going on smoothly where focus is on optimizing the use and enforcing the habit of energy saving. The devices like Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) can definitely mark a great beginning in the household and domestic sector. Even in Government buildings, the energy audit has been taken up on the basis of novel approach of ‘Energy service Companies’ concept. Even the country’s biggest power utility, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is focusing on creating wider awareness through dissemination of information to educational institutions. As the CMD of NTPC, C.P. Jain remarked that, “we have to give support to this important campaign in an innovative way so that message along with habit is put across the whole nation”. Ultimately the last word came from Shri Sayeed that “…a paradigm shift from supply dominated to demand management, which shifts the focus from energy conservation to energy efficiency and from energy inputs to the effectiveness of energy use and the energy services, can deliver the results.”
*Addl. PIO (Health & Family Welfare and Power)
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