Step up power conservation initiatives - Minister

Thursday, 15 December 2011 10:28

Concerted efforts of industrial units complemented by massive public initiatives to reduce 60 per cent domestic power consumption are imperative to bridge the widening demand and supply gap, Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed has said. Inaugurating a function got up by the Energy Management Centre to present the Energy Conservation Awards 2011 on 14-12-2011, Mr. Aryadan said the current annual power demand was 3,300 MW and this was expected to reach 6,000 MW by 2020-21. Industrial units should appoint energy managers and conduct energy audit and the public should take energy conservation steps considering the impediments in hydel power generation in the State. Against the installed capacity of 1,997 MW, the hydel projects in the State were generating only 1,500 to 1,600 MW. While Tamil Nadu was generating 5,900 MW annually from wind energy projects, here it was 33 MW. Hydel project proposals for generating 700 MW could not take off as the Centre has not given environmental clearance. Public resistance and lack of transmission lines were further complicating the power sector. The shortage is being made up through power purchase at exorbitant rates. Peak load consumption should be reduced. Conservation efforts should be stepped up, he said.

KSEB chairman T.M. Manoharan, in his presidential address, said the public were unaware of the power crisis gripping the State. Tariff hike has become impossible due to social, political and economic reasons. Setting up of new projects demanded heavy investment. The rising cost and other challenges point to the need for conservation, he said.

Those institutions which won the conservation awards are HLL Lifecare Ltd, Peroorkada, MRF Tyres, Kottayam, Wonder La Holidays Private Ltd, Coconut Lagoon, Kottayam, and the PWD, Electrical wing. In the awards for research and innovation category, P.S. Chandramohan Nair, chairman of Electrical and Electronics Department of Amrita University, won the award for his 'drainage power recovery system.' P.Shaji James, Krishi VIgyan Kendra, Palakkad won the citation for research in power saving farm equipment.

BSNL Telephone Exchange, Palarivattom, Kochi and Regional Cancer Centre, here won the awards for energy saving buildings category.

The award for the certified energy manager went to S.Sinuvasan of BSES, Kochi, and the citation to M. Sudheendran, BSNL, Thiruvananthapuram.

In the educational institutions category, the winners are Mualavana VHSS, Vamanapuram, Government Upper Primary School, Puttumanoor Ernakulam, Christ College, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur and TocH Institute of Science and Technology, Ernakulam. The honours for individuals were won by Y. George, a former KSRTC employee and V.K. Nasir, Kozhikode, who has made and installed bio-gas plants.

Source- Hindu