Coimbatore-based Epic Energy Ltd, which has been asked by the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) to prepare a master plan to make Amritsar and Ludhiana solar cities, is likely to submit its report by July 15. According to sources, initially it would submit its report on Amritsar and later on Ludhiana. After the submission of master plan, the state government will approach the Centre for approval of the plan and for funds.
Speaking to Business Standard, sources in PEDA said Epic Energy has been given extension due to certain unavoidable reasons and they had written to them that the report would be submitted by July 15. They revealed that initially master plan of Amritsar would be submitted and as the study on Ludhiana is going on, so it is early to state the date when it would be completed.
After submission of master plan to the PEDA and before finalisation, draft of the plan would be discussed in a stakeholders consultation workshop having representation from elected representatives, local research and academic institutions, resident welfare associations, industries and corporate organizations, NGOs, etc.
The consultant would prepare master plan for these cities which would include complete information about the population of the city, energy consumption by domestic household, commercial establishments, Industrial household, etc.
It is worth mentioning that the Master Plan prepared by the Epic energy will set a goal of minimum 10 per cent reduction in projected total demand of conventional energy at the end of five years to be achieved through energy saving from energy efficiency measures and generation from renewable energy installations. Further, the program on “Development of Solar Cities” would support and encourage urban local bodies to prepare a Road Map to guide their cities in becoming ‘renewable energy cities’ or ‘solar cities’ or ‘eco-green cities’.
The master plan prepared would provide total and sector-wise projections for energy demand and supply for next 10 years. Also, it would provide a complete sector-wise base-line on energy utilisation and GHG(green house gases) emissions in the city. Year-wise targets for energy conservation, renewable energy addition and GHG abatement along with the action plan for implementation will be clearly brought out in the master plan.
Potential sources of funding from respective organisations (both public and private) for providing financial support will be identified in the master plan. This step involves predicting the energy demand for five year and 10 year periods and to estimate the demand, growth in energy use in different sectors needs to be established. These growth rates would be used for making future projection of energy demand in each sector for year 2013 (five year) and 2018 (10 year).
He added after finalisation of master plan the Punjab government will approach the centre for funding purpose. According to the ministry of new and renewable energy scheme, 50 per cent of the total project cost (maximum upto Rs nine crore) would be borne by the Centre while remaining portion would be funded by the stockholders and the department is also planning to approach state government for funding.
