Energy efficiency key to competitiveness

The drive for energy conservation in the industrial sector has assumed greater significance these days as the effort to improve energy efficiency levels will directly contribute to the global competitiveness of India, speakers at a seminar organised here by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fapcci) observed.

According to one estimate, the industrial sector has a total energy conservation potential of 25 per cent. And even the power plants themselves are not above from the effort to conserve energy, according to Y Harish Chandra Prasad, managing director of the Lanco Kondapally Power Project.

"As a saying goes, charity should begin at home. The thermal generation plant itself consumes 10 per cent of what it produces and there is lot of scope for reducing this consumption. Also, only 35 per cent of the heat energy has been converted into electric energy in the power plants, leaving a scope for the future technologies to address the problem," Prasad explained.

Stressing the need for reducing auxiliary consumption in the thermal power plants as well as the need for reducing transmission and distribution losses in the power sector, Prasad reminded that India ranked 57 in global competitiveness.

Delivering the key-note address, R P Rammohan, a local energy management consultant, advised the industry to improve the existing systems of their equipment and units through regular energy audits.

According to him, the energy conservation potential ranges between 8 and 10 per cent in refineries, 25-30 per cent in sugar industry, 15-20 per cent in ferrous foundry, 20-25 per cent in textiles and pulp & paper, 10-15 per cent in petrochemical, chloro-alkali, fertilisers& pesticides, glass, ceramics and cement industries among others.

S E Sekhar Babu, managing director of the Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (Nedcap), said that energy audits are mandatory in all companies which have a connected load of over and above 5 mw of power.