Rising energy costs hit Indian industries: Survey

Rising energy costs and irregular power supply have hit Indian industries and cause an annual loss of nearly $68 billion to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), an industry survey showed.

According to a survey conducted by Schneider Electric India, in partnership with the an industry body Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), 93 percent firms want to reduce their energy costs but do not have know-how for it.

A quarter of the surveyed companies said their spending on energy was more than 10 percent of the total operating expenses.

Energy expenses are seen more in metro-based companies where 30 percent claimed energy to comprise more than 10 percent of total expenses.

"Rising energy costs impact bottom-lines across the industries in the country, especially impacting the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. Rising energy costs is further compounded by the lack of a reliable grid supply," Anil Chaudhry, managing director and country president, Schneider Electric India, said in the survey report.

Referring to industry reports, Chaudhry said power losses cost India a GDP loss of $68 billion annually.

"In such a situation, we are seeing that industrial consumers of power are keen to embrace new solutions on energy efficiency and management that can bring down costs or at least keep them constant," he said.

The companies are increasingly spending on energy efficient products to minimise the impact of rising energy cost.

Nearly half of the surveyed firms expect the spending on energy efficiency to go up in the coming years, while 83 percent of the respondents anticipated spending, in the year ahead, at least the same as last year.

Commenting on the survey findings, Koshy Cherail, AEEE president, said: "For Indian businesses and exports to be competitive in today's globalised marketplace, both, the price and supply of power need to be kept in mind."

"Energy efficiency is the cornerstone of energy management and through this study we're seeing industry leaders point to a greater uptake with regards to energy efficiency, especially in non-metro India," Cherail said.

More than 300 industry units from different sectors, including food and beverages, textiles, automobiles, auto ancillaries, pharma, and building and construction, participated in the survey conducted in September. The survey covered metros as well as smaller cities across the country.