CII organized a Conference on Energy Management on 25^th February 2014 in New Delhi. A CII – KPMG report on “Managing Energy Cost for Competitive Advantage” was also released during the Inaugural Session. The Conference highlighted mainly on the following points:

• India has come a long-way in terms of energy efficiency but there is still a long road ahead. In next 20 years, India’s built-up area would be 4 times of what it is today (from 25 billion sq.ft. in 2012 to 100 billion sq.ft. in 2030).

• Some of the energy efficient measures are high performance envelope for efficient wind-flow, solar air-conditioning, radiant cooling technology, increasing chiller’s Coefficient of Performance (COP), onsite wind-solar hybrid, cavity walls for buildings, natural lit buildings and net-zero energy buildings.

• Demand for energy will continue to rise and so shall energy prices. There are two aspects to the solution viz. integration of renewable energy and demand management. Renewables, substantially reduce our energy dependence on external factors and also, give consumers the comfort of “price locking”. Demand management, on the other hand, should target reduction in energy consumption while increasing the services delivered.

• We need to mentally and technically de-couple energy requirement from the services required such as lighting, cooling, mobility, etc. The utilities should try to identify 2-3 cost-effective energy efficiency measures for the acceptance of end-users.

• PAT regulations have seen seriousness only recently, especially in cement, metal, mining and minerals.

• An organization’s energy strategy should be bolstered by transparency in data reporting and KPI based energy matrix. Energy efficiency measures can yield up to 20% - 30% savings for industrial consumers.

• Impetus on renewable should not be at the cost of hurting the interests of conventional power utilities. The issues of returns on investment on grid infrastructure and grid’s capacity to absorb concentrated power supply from an island of wind or solar installations cannot be ignored. In this context, the impact of CERC’s recent ruling of incentivizing plants on PLF instead of availability should be carefully examined.

• Capital expendure for a solar plant has declined from INR 25 crores per MW few years ago to about INR 7 crores per MW at present.

• Levellized cost of solar electricity has come down so as to achieve parity with grid electricity tariffs in 7 Indian states.

• Wind energy is a viable option, primarily, because the tariff once fixed does not escalate during the life of the windmill whereas conventional power tariff keeps increasing.

• Wind energy can compete better with conventional power if a level playing field is ensured – thermal power plants guzzle water but that water is not priced appropriately. Thermal power plants contribute to 88 percent of the total industrial water consumption. More than 80% of the new coal power plants are in water scarce areas. India is the third largest emitter of CO₂, about 2.5^OC of temperature rise could lead to 28 percent decline in agriculture output.

• Hydrogen can work very efficiently at “part-load” and can be very efficient for automobile applications. He said that the technology of “fuel cells” is facing issues in logistics as currently logistics costs are higher than the cost of hydrogen molecule. The current cost of electricity from hydrogen is INR 34 per kwh and current cost of hydrogen delivered to site is INR 500/kg, which is expected to come down with time. He apprised of other innovation such as low-voltage DC grids. Germany is looking into developing the infrastructure for Hydrogen Automobiles.
  
  
• In next 20 years, India’s built-up area would be 4 times of what it is today (from 25 billion sq.ft. in 2012 to 100 billion sq.ft. in 2030). It has deep implications for India’s future energy requirement.
  
•  Energy efficiency measures can yield 5% - 10% results instantaneously and up to 20% - 30% savings in long term, to industrial consumers.
  
  
• Motivation, awareness and incentives can play important role in enabling the acceptance of demand side management practices.

Energy Costs constitutes a significant proportion of the total costs in many organizations. The rising costs of fuels such as coal, oil and gas has resulted in steep increase in power tariff and prices of petroleum products. However, concurrently there have been options that have been enabled through a mix of policy, new technologies and smart practices that provide opportunity to reduce energy consumption. Given the current context, such savings in energy would indeed translate into competitive advantage. 

Besides impacting the costs, energy also has an impact on environment and if not managed properly, can lead to devastating effects on the planet owing to global climate change. Thus each and every individual and corporate has the responsibility to optimize energy usage and reduce the carbon footprint. 

Understanding the need of the hour, CII Northern Region organized a Conference on Energy Management : Managing Energy Cost for Competitive Advantage on 25 February 2014 at New Delhi. 

This important initiative of CII endeavors to highlight some of the new ways of procuring energy, technological advancements, best practices which would pave the way forward for the businesses in the field of energy efficiency further resulting in higher productivity / output. 

BEE and state designated agencies were also  invited to share their roadmap towards adoption of energy efficiency in all sectors through case studies and upcoming projects.