Govt to give stars to rate power efficiency of buildings

The government will soon have "star" ratings for its commercial buildings to keep a tab on their power use and to ascertain consumption by various appliances.

All buildings adhering to the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), a body that specifies the energy performance requirements for commercial buildings to be constructed in the country, would be given star ratings.

"At present this scheme is only for government buildings, it would ascertain how much power was consumed by the building in the past one year and which appliance led to maximum usage. Then it would be improved upon," Director General BEE Ajay Mathur said.

To start with the plan is only for commercial buildings but in the future residential buildings would also be included under the scheme, he said.

To implement the scheme, BEE has tied up with Gurgaon-based private company SGM Pvt Ltd. It has also been approached by Reliance Industries for providing star ratings to the company's 11 buildings.

A statutory body under the Ministry of Power,BEE, has already given star ratings to home appliances such as ACs, refrigerators and fans.The Reserve Bank of India branches in Delhi and Bhuwaneswar have also been given star ratings by the BEE.