Tata Power Energy Club (TPEC), a social initiative by private utility Tata Power, aims to educate and sensitise 1 million people in India about energy conservation this year.
The energy conservation club, by educating school children to further spread the message, focuses on bringing about a first-hand realisation of the energy crisis in the country.
The initiative, launched in 2007 as a pilot project with 12 schools, is a part of Tata Power's corporate social responsibility (CSR). "The idea is to imbibe in this young generation the idea of energy conservation. Saving one unit of power is equal to saving four Rupees," Tata Power Company Chief Sustainability Officer Avinash Patkar told reporters here.
"With TPEC, we have so far reached 28 schools in Mumbai and sensitised 11,000 children in the last academic year," a Tata Power spokesperson said.
The school-children, in turn, share information on energy conservation with at least two others and their families.
"We've had 38,339 people as part of this initiative so far. For the next (academic) year, our target is one million people," the spokesperson said. Tata Power has already initiated the awareness programme in three schools in Belgaum, Karnataka.
"We are going to 10 city colleges this year. Besides, we'll be taking up this project in Pune, Ahmedabad, National Capital Region (NCR), Jamshedpur and Bangalore by February 2010," the spokesperson said. Educated through audio-viusal presentations, students from the sixth to eight standard then spread the word in their localities and among family members.