BEE focus on cooling to save 40GW by 2030

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) was betting big on saving energy from cooling or airconditioning of residential and commercial spaces, hoping to save 40GW of power by 2030, an official said.

This residential and commercial space is a major power consuming area in non-industrial sector.

"Cooling alone can save 40GW of power. By 2030, there is a possibility of saving about 40GW of energy from cooling alone if the technologies improve on projected lines and available at affordable prices," BEE Director General Abhay Bakre said.

If the present situation did not change, the projected power demand of the country would be 140GW by 2030, "but considering we achieve the targets, then demand would get reduced to say 100GW," Bakre said at the Bengal Chamber organised Environment and Energy Conclave.

Based on projections, the demand for air-conditioners is set to increase to 1.5 crore units by 2030 from some 60 lakh units per annum now with rising availability of power and income, he said.

"The load of air-conditioning can be cut down with intervention of new technologies and policy," Bakre said.

Ratings for air-conditioners and other appliances in terms of energy efficiency are a continuous process and these ratings have further been improved from January this year, the BEE director said.

"The improvement of ratings depends on the market transformation with availability of efficient products at affordable price. From 2010 to 2018, we have already improved it by 40 per cent. A four-star earlier is equivalent to one star now," he said.

BEE expects energy efficient building would be another important area for energy conservation.

"We have already come out with energy efficient commercial building code in 2017 and now we are working for separate code for the residential buildings," Bakre said.

He remained optimistic about the target set for the 800 most energy consuming consumers of the country to save 8 million ton of oil equivalent by 2019-20 would be achieved.

"These 800 consumers consume 60 per cent of the country's primary energy," Bakre said.

Meanwhile, The Bengal Chamber energy and environment committee chairperson Deb A Mukherjee said the chamber works very closely on various energy efficiency projects with the industry and sector leaders to achieve the national goal.