More than 100 paper mills likely to come under PAT scheme: IPMA official

More than 100 paper mills are expected to come under the energy efficiency scheme Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) by next year as players are adopting technology to reduce their energy footprint, an industry body said on Wednesday.

The paper industry has reduced its specific energy consumption by 20 per cent in the last five years, the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (IPMA) said in a statement.

Integrated paper mills in India are generating over 40 per cent of the power consumption by utilising the biomass from the pulping process, the IPMA said.

"More than 100 paper mills are expected to come under the ambit of the PAT scheme in the next one year, IPMA Vice President Vadiraj Kulkarni said in his address at Paper Tech 2023.

Specific water and energy consumption is being reduced continuously to lessen the carbon footprint, he added.

IPMA said it has welcomed the government's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme 2023 under which an Indian Carbon Market would be constituted.

The existing PAT Scheme would be subsumed under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, with both widening and deepening of sectors covered, in the next 2-3 years.

This will be an important step towards the country achieving net-zero in GHG emissions.

Under the PAT, energy savings certificates are issued to plants that achieve their targets. These certificates can be traded on Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL).