Save power, get sops: State offer

Hyderabad: The state has the potential to save energy worth Rs 9,543 crore every year by following best practices of energy conservation, said chief secretary P.K. Mohanty on Thursday.

The electricity used for street lighting in all urban local bodies, for example, could be brought down to half the existing levels. A pilot study conducted in nine municipalities, including Visakhapatnam Muni­cipal Corporation, revealed that 186 million units spent on street lighting could be brought down to 93 MU, he said.

Dr Mohanty, who chaired the fifth State Energy Conservation Mission here on Thursday, appealed to all government departments to evolve strategies to save at least 15,000 MU in domestic, industrial, agriculture and government agencies including local bodies.

The meeting, attended by secretaries and heads of more than 20 departments, discussed various measures to enforce conservation. Conservation could start from switching off lights or electronic gadgets at an individual level to promoting solar energy in agriculture and replacing existing streetlights with LED bulbs.

The meeting also gave in-principal approval to the suggestion that all incentives extended to industries should be linked to the performance of the respective industry on energy conservation. The Industries department, along with industrial bodies, will develop a “green factory code”, said Dr Mohanty.

As per a report of the Bureau of Energy Effi­ciency, the potential to save energy in the industrial sector is 4,820 MU, the domestic sector 4,180 MU, government and local bodies 835 MU and agriculture 5,270 MU.

Significantly, the government of the United Kingdom will soon sign a MoU with the state government, which will enable the state to get exposure to best global practices in energy efficiency areas.

A simple change in agricultural operations, like direct seeding instead of transplantation, will also help save a lot of energy, the CS said, adding that the area under direct seeding had been increased from 1.5 lakh acres to 2.5 lakh acres this year.

Energy officials M.K. Sahoo, Suresh Chand, Vij­ay­­anand and A. Chand­rasekhar Reddy were present at the meet. The CS?also released a calendar brought out by the Mission with badminton aces Gopichand and Saina Nehwal as brand ambassadors for energy conservation.