VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh bagged a National award under the SDA (State Designated Agency) category for the third consecutive year. A. Chandra Sekhara Reddy, CEO, APSECM (State Energy Conservation Mission), received the award on behalf of the government of Andhra Pradesh. The Union minister of state (independent charge) for power and renewable energy, R.K Singh, presented the National Energy Conservation Awards 2017 at Vignan Bhavan, New Delhi on Thursday, on the occasion of the National Energy Conservation Day.
The Government of India advised all states to emulate Andhra Pradesh model in implementing the energy efficiency and energy conservation programmes, especially in rural areas. Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Secretary of the Ministry of power, Raj Pal, economic adviser, Ministry of power, Abhay Bhakre, director general of BEE, Saurabh Kumar, MD, EESL, Pankaj Kumar, secretary, BEE and other senior officials from MoP, BEE, from various states participated in the awards ceremony.
Union minister, R.K. Singh, pointed out that AP was far ahead of other states in taking advanced steps, even in rural areas, in the LED street lighting programme as well as installation of over 12 lakh energy-efficient agricultural pump sets and 31,000 solar pump sets in a phased manner. He appreciated that it was all because of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s far-sighted vision.
AP Chief Secretary, Dinesh Kumar and Principal Secretary, Energy, I&I and CRDA Ajay Jain, thanked the Union ministry of power and BEE for selecting the state as the best SDA in the country and conveyed the message of Mr Naidu, expressing happiness over the state winning the National SDA Awards 2017, for the third consecutive year. Kala Venkata Rao, Minister of Energy, AP also expressed his happiness over the E.C. award and congratulated the officials.
Heritage Foods won second prize:
Heritage Foods won the Second Prize at the National Energy Conservation Awards-2017 in the dairy sector. Nara Brahmani, Executive Director - Heritage Foods received the award from Union minister of state (independent charge) for Power and New and Renewable Energy, Raj Kumar Singh on the National Energy Conservation Day. The event was organised by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and ministry of power at Vigyan Bhavan, Delhi on Thursday, After receiving the award, Nara Brahmani said, “We are a 25-year-old company and we are taking a lot of initiatives to improve efficiencies of our company.
Renewable energy is our major focus area and in the last ten years, it is the eighth year, Heritage Foods has received the National Energy Conservation Award".
"We are probably the first dairy company to go renewable energy route and have more than 10 MW of solar and wind power as for captive consumption. We are continuously investing in latest technologies and efficiencies to conserve energy. As a result, we could save about 14.5 per cent and 10 per cent when it comes to electrical units and thermal units respectively. With this, we had a yearly savings of '35 lakh,” she said. Heritage Foods Limited is one of the leading Dairy brands in India with two business divisions - Dairy and Renewable Energy.
