ENERGY SAVED TODAY IS ASSET FOR
FUTURE: ANANT GEETE
ENERGY
CONSERVATION AWARDS PRESENTED
"The energy
saved today would be an asset for the future" – said the
Union Minister of Power, Shri Anant G. Geete while presenting
the National Energy Conservation Awards for the year 2003 here
today. He said that while about 45% of our population still didn’t
have access to electricity, we were not able to meet the requirements
of our industries also. Referring to 15% to 45% energy saving
potential of our industries, he reiterated that the solution lies
in promoting conservation and restricting misuse of energy.
The function was
organized to celebrate National Energy Conservation Day. These
annual awards are given to recognize innovation and achievements
in energy conservation by the large and medium scale industry
to raise awareness about energy conservation that plays a big
role in reducing global warming through energy savings. Shri Geete
told the gathering that all the Central ministries had voluntarily
resolved to save up to 30% of their electricity consumption.
This year the Excellence
Award was given to Indian Aluminum Company Limited, Hirakud. Apart
from this, one special prize, eight first prizes, eight second
prizes and 18 Certificates of Merit were also awarded to progressive
industrial units.
The prominent winners
for this year's awards include Indian Aluminium Company Limited,
Hirakud, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Mumbai, Dalmia Cement
(Bharat) Limited, Tirchirappalli, Indian Rayon and Industries
Ltd., Veraval, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Jindal Steel & Power
Limited, Patalganga and Hazira plant of Reliance Industries Limited,
Gujarat Refinery and Panipat Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation
and Jaya Shree Textiles, Rishra, West Bengal. The awardees have
demonstrated a high degree of commitment to energy conservation.
The Minister lauded
the efforts of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency that manages the
National Energy Conservation Awards. Established under the Energy
Conservation Act 2001, the Bureau is assisting industry and commercial
establishments to meet the mandatory provisions of the Act through
a voluntary approach.
Shri H L Bajaj, Chairman
of the Central Electricity Authority proposed the vote of thanks.
The secretary, ministry of Power Shri R V Shahi, additional secretary
and other senior officers of the Ministry were also present on
the occasion.
For the Energy Conservation
Award 2003, 36 industrial units had been selected from 191 nominations
received. These 191 industrial units had been able to collectively
avoid generation of 5419 lakhs kWh/year of electrical energy in
2002-2003, which is equivalent to the energy generated from a
103 MW thermal power station at a Plant Load Factor of 60%. In
the monetary terms, these units had been able to save Rs. 53940
lakh (Rs. 539 crore) per year on account of electrical and thermal
energy saved during the year 2002-2003.
In these five years
of the Award scheme, the participating industrial units have collectively
saved Rs.2291 crores per year and the investment made on energy
efficiency projects was recovered back in 16 months. In energy
terms, 460 MW of electrical power, nine lakh kilolitre of oil,
27 lakh metric tonne of coal and 115,849 lakh cubic metre of gas
was saved.
