EESL to invest Rs 200cr to make PWD buildings energy efficient

State-run Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) plans to invest around Rs 200 crore to make nearly 1,500 buildings of the Public Works Department of the Maharashtra government energy efficient, a company official said.
"After successfully implementing our UJALA scheme to distribute LED bulbs at affordable rates across the country and the program to replace street lights with LEDs, we want to take the initiative to a next level by making buildings energy efficient," EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar told PTI here.
EESL, a joint venture of NTPC, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and PowerGrid, was set up under Ministry of Power to facilitate implementation of energy efficiency projects.

"We have embarked on a project to make buildings energy efficient. We have already taken up a few projects in Delhi where we are implementing the energy efficiency program in a few government establishments. We are now tying up with the Maharashtra government, where we will make these 1,500 buildings of the PWD department energy efficient," he said.
EESL will invest nearly Rs 200 crore for the project for upgrading the lighting system, use more efficient and power saving air-conditioners and fans, among others, he said.
"There are around 25,000 ACs in these 1,500 buildings and we plan to replace them with systems which save nearly 40 per cent more energy than the BEE 5-star rated machines. We plan to complete the project in a year.

"We will maintain all these equipment for the entire project period of 3-5 years. We hope we will be able to recover investments during these 3-5 years," Kumar said.

He said the project will be undertaken under its National Building Program, which will be launched on May 20 this year in the state.
Apart from this, EESL is also implementing a similar project at 900 railway stations across the country, he said.
"We have also embarked on a program where it will retrofit all the lightings in Indian High Commissions based in London. We are implementing this project on a pilot basis and we will be investing nearly 70,000 pounds for this," Kumar said.

Recently, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal announced that EESL will invest 100 million pound in the UK over the next three years to extend its affordable lighting scheme there.
EESL has so far distributed over 23 crore LED bulbs and 22 lakh street lights have been replaced, which is nearly 20 per cent of the total street lights across the country.