An IT tool to help civic bodies enforce compliance in green buildings

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has come up with an IT tool that will aid local municipal staff to ensure new green buildings in small towns live up to their promise

Anybody who has been to the office of town and country planning departments that function under municipal corporations in various cities will be put off by the indifferent approach of the officials there. To expect such local government staff, who still push more paper than rely on basic information technology, to push for modern and smart buildings is a challenge, especially if the builder or his customer are not similarly inclined.

This state of affairs has led to the realisation that sensitising builders to leverage the use of natural light or air demands long-term engagement and monitoring from institutions other than such poorly functioning institutions. With the intention of promoting this agenda, the Union government in 2007 launched the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) that set the standards under scientifically coded norms. This code went through modifications in 2008 and was made mandatory largely for non-residential buildings in a dozen state and Union Territories including Assam, Odisha, Haryana, West Bengal and Kerala.

Still, the monitoring left much to be desired since the code has to be implemented at the level of urban local bodies.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), which is mandated to implement the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, has come up with a solution of sorts to this vexed problem. Last year, it issued the code afresh and notified ECBC rules 2018 in February. Monitoring and compliance, meanwhile, will be enhanced by a new IT tool that  BEE will shortly be introducing. This is an Energy Monitoring Information System (EMIS) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Abhay Bakre, director general, BEE, says the new interactive and simulation software will enable architects and builders to feed in building plan and see whether it conforms to the new code. EMIS will also offer tailor-made suggestions for different architectural plans to meet the energy efficiency requirements under the code.

How helpful will EMIS be? It can help architects and engineers to gauge energy conservation at the design stage, says Arun Kumar Dutta, consultant with Kolkata-based consulting, design and engineering firm M N Dastur. “Subsequently, software tools will help demonstrate compliance as well,” he adds.

Software for different design requirements is already used by the construction industry that has to mandatorily comply with the National Building Code 2016 of the Bureau of Indian Standards. These are for the latest structural loading and design and meeting the construction norms including those relating to wind load, earthquake resistance, steel design and foundation in order to ensure structural safety of buildings including against a disaster. Dutta says his company, for instance, uses STADD.Pro (V8.i), and other software like RISA and GT STRUDL for structural design requirements.

Currently, ECBC 2018 rules are not mandatory. By December 2018, some states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are expected to make the code mandatory. “The software has been developed and we are in the advance stage of discussion with urban local bodies and authorities for its deployment,” says Bakre.

The code is applicable to buildings and complexes that have a connected power load of 100 kW or greater or a contract demand of 120 kVA or more, with plot area more than 1000 square metre or built-up area of 2000 sq.mt and are intended to be used for commercial purposes.

Simultaneously, the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Teri’s GRIHA have developed green ratings for building based on their  environment friendliness. Besides energy efficiency, such green buildings are also required to have water savings and net zero-waste disposal, and reduction of heat island effect.

IGBC has so far covered 4,656 green building projects with 5.4 billion sq feet of green footprint in India, which is second to only the US. IGBC is now looking at having 10 billion sq. ft of green footprint by 2022, says V Suresh, former chairman and managing director, Hudco, and chair, policy and advocacy, IGBC.

IGBC also offers a GreenPro certification for building materials and products. There are 380 such certified products covering 19 categories, says Suresh. This is particularly helpful since apart from the design itself, building material and finishing services with different thermal efficiency properties, including U and R values, help in ensuring lower power consumption. The R-value is the measurement of a material’s capacity to resist heat flow, which means the higher the product’s R-value, the better its insulation and, therefore, the energy requirement for maintaining ambient temperature is less. U-value, on the other hand, measures the rate of heat transfer. This means that products with a lower U-value will be more energy efficient.

Indeed, energy efficiency raises the question of cost. As Dutta points out, the compliance with ECBC 2017 will increase the cost of civil and architectural design as well as of energy efficient equipment like transformers, pumps, AC and ventilation, lighting, provision for solar energy, etc. He reckons that for a fully ECBC-compliant building, the initial project cost will increase 10 to 15 per cent. “However, the payback period for the cost incurred for achieving energy conservation level will be five to seven years,” he adds.

Some state and local governments, however, offer incentives like higher floor surface index and lower property tax rates for buildings that have higher green ratings. Lower energy consumption coupled with these incentives can work in parallel to recover the additional cost.  But mandatory implementation and monitoring would be the vital starting point for sustainable construction to become widespread. 

Green measures

Energy Performance Index 

It is the per square meter energy consumption of a building annually excluding storage and basement parking

Energy Performance Index Ratio

Ratio of energy performance index of the proposed building to the energy performance index of the standard baseline building

Ideal ratio: Energy performance index ratio of a green building should come to less than or equal to one

Implementation: Empanelled energy auditors will fill compliance documents at each stage, namely design, construction and completion