60 industries in north India to implement PAT scheme

About 60 energy intensive industries across eight sectors in Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh with energy consumption with more than specified limit has been notified under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, and selected in the Phase-I of PAT (perform, achieve, trade) scheme. The scheme to be implemented from April 1, this year across India by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for energy-intensive large industries, will facilitate to reduce energy consumption in these industries in the next three years. According to the mechanism, companies consuming less energy will now be able to sell the efficiency certificates to the non-efficient ones, domestically.

According to the notifications, there are 41 units in Punjab, eight in Haryana, six in Himachal Pradesh and four in Uttarakhand with high energy consumption. Most of the industries, with energy consumption of more than 30,000 metric tonnes (MT) of oil equivalent, are covered under designated consumers. Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) Head TPS Sidhu said, under the PAT scheme industries which exceed their targets will receive Energy Saving Certificates (ESCs) equivalent to their excess savings and industries which fail to meet their targets may either face penalties or purchase ESCs. He was addressing the participants in a workshop organised by PEDA for energy intensive industries.

Nationally, the ministry of power has notified 563 designated consumers (industries) across eight industrial sectors such as thermal power plants, fertiliser, cement, pulp and paper, textiles, chlor-alkali, iron and steel and aluminum, where consumption is very high. The industries of these eight sector account for about 231 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent of energy conservation annually according to 2007-08 data which is about 54 per cent of the total energy consumed in the country. By adopting the mechanism, they would be saving about 10 MT oil equivalent in the next three years along with expected avoided capacity addition of over 19,000 Mw. Also, the carbon-dioxide emission reduction is estimated to be to 98.6 MT annually.

The PAT mechanism will enable designated consumers who use less energy than the norm set for them to earn Energy Saving Certificates (ESCerts) for the excess savings. These ESCerts can be used by other designated consumers (who may find it expensive to meet their norms) for compliance. They will be denominated in tonnes of oil-equivalent (ToE) and exchanged on special trading platforms..

According to the scheme, BEE will set a specific energy consumption target for each plant, depending on level of energy intensity of that plant. The target will specify by which percentage a plant has to improve its energy intensity from the base line value in a period of three years. Further, certificates would be given for energy efficiency, so the industry will be able to trade these with under-performers.