Energy efficient units to get PAT on back

Called Perform,Achieve and Trade (PAT),the mechanism will be executed through certification of energy savings that can be traded.

BEE Director General Dr Ajay Mathur said PAT scheme would start from April 1 this year and within two weeks units would be given targets to be met by 2014. The BEE would hold over 50 consultations spread over two and a half months with the stakeholders,starting January 27 from New Delhi,he added.

As certificates will be given for energy efficiency,the industry that does better than the target will be able to trade these with under-performers. Elaborating,he said: “Suppose,an industry has been given a target to reduced energy by 100 tonnes of oil equivalent,and it was able to reduce by 60 tonnes only. It can then either buy certificates worth the deficit amount (40 tonnes) or pay the penalty.” Or the under-performers could buy certificates for some amount,say 10 tonnes,and pay penalty for the rest,he added.

Mathur,however,added that penalty was not their aim,as they just wanted to promote energy efficiency and reward the better performers. Claiming that the energy-intensive industry uses 50 per of the fuel in India,he said the targets would be indirectly proportional to the units’ efficiency. “The efficient ones will get smaller targets to meet,” he added. In Punjab,Mathur said,30 such units had been identified,including a cement plant,three chlor-alkali,four power plants,two fertilisers units,five pulp and paper and 15 textile units.

Mathur,who was recently in Chandigarh for a seminar,told The Indian Express that the units had already been informed about PAT. When asked what criteria they followed while selecting the units,he said the industry had been divided into nine sectors,each with an energy threshold fixed. The plants that have been using more energy than the threshold have been included in the list.

Notably,the nine energy-intensive sectors notified as ‘designated consumers’ under the Energy Conservation (EC) Act include aluminum,cement,iron and steel,chlor-alkali,thermal power plants,fertiliser,pulp and paper,textiles and railways.

Advising Punjab,Mathur said the government should make efforts to soon adopt the Energy Efficiency Building Code. He said the state should ask the municipalities to follow the code and also adopt the schedule of rates for energy efficient building material,as was done by Haryana. “Energy efficiency projects cannot be done in isolation. Many departments,like local bodies,town planning,power utilities and architects will have to be brought together,” he said.