PAT to help industries in AP get cost-effective energy round-the-clock

Special chief secretary to the Energy department, K Vijayanand, said on Wednesday that the AP power utilities have promised to supply high quality power to industries round-the-clock, so as to speed up industrialization, economic development and employment generation in Andhra Pradesh.

The AP State Energy Conservation Mission and the AP Energy department in coordination with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency organised a workshop on the ‘Perform, Achieve and Trade’ (PAT) scheme here on Wednesday.

Vijayanand, who inaugurated the workshop, said PAT is a market-based compliance regulatory mechanism to facilitate cost-effective improvements vis-a-vis energy efficiency in large energy-intensive industries.

The state government, he said, aimed at industrial promotion and employment generation. He announced PAT results for AP, as per the data provided by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency. He said 36 high energy intensive industries falling under PAT saved around 0.818 million tonnes of oil-equivalent (mtoe) energy (consisting of coal, oil, gas, lignite etc) worth `5709 crore in the state.

This was made possible with a reduction of 2.464 million tonnes of CO2 through implementation of energy efficiency technologies and best practices in the industry in the first three cycles of PAT spread over the last few years, he said.

Vijayanand said the economic activity in the state is in full swing in the post-Covid phase, and this  resulted in an increase in energy consumption. For instance, the consumption in Visakhapatnam registered a 21 per cent growth in 2021-22 over the lower energy demand in 2018-19.

The power utilities have been putting in their best efforts to maintain uninterrupted 24x7 supply of quality, reliable and secured grid power to the industrial sector. This frees the industrial consumers from the obligation of setting up captive/standby power generation with a huge capital cost, he said.

CEO of APSECM, Chandrasekhara Reddy, said the agency has implemented IoT-based demonstration projects in MSMEs in coordination with IIT, Hyderabad, including in Padma ceramics in East Godavari district. “The project was successful. Innovative IOT technology was recognized and showcased at the national level,” he said.

APSECM had altogether installed 65 IoT power monitoring devices in MSME units to improve their power factor, and enhance equipment life and their productivity, he added.