Planning for energy efficiency

After tirelessly propagating the need for improving energy efficiency to contain energy demand in its discussions and documents, the Planning Commission has now managed to bag the coveted Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) rating for energy-efficient buildings for its head office Yojana Bhawan. The building, which houses the commission and all offices associated with it, has been given a star rating by BEE, which makes it one of a handful of fairly old government offices to bag the coveted certification. Clearly, the commission believes that much more energy - certainly more than the 11,000 Mw saved during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) - can be saved by adopting energy-efficient methods.