More than 3,000 Government buildings in Maharashtra will soon go green, with the authorities having signed an agreement with a State-run Joint Venture (JV) to retrofit lighting and cooling appliances in these structures with energy efficient ones. As per agreement signed between the Maharashtra Government and Energy Efficiency Services ltd (EESl), a JV under the Ministry of Power, the EESl will bear the entire up-front investment of Rs 307 crore. The Maharashtra Public Works Department will pay EESl from the savings they accrue in their electricity bills over a period of 5 years. The EESl will install around 26,500 energy-efficient air-conditioners, 1.1 million lED lights, and 2,50,000 ceiling fans resulting in about 120 million unit savings – or 48 per cent reduction from base consumption.
This initiative, likely to be completed by 2019, is expected to entail savings of Rs 115 crore annually for the government.
The installation of energy efficient appliances has already been completed in 9 buildings has already been completed. These include Bandhkam Bhawan in Mumbai, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nasik, Kolhapur, PWD Campus in Pune, Nagpur and Maharashtra Sadan, New Delhi.
Speaking on the occasion, Maharashtra PWD Minister Chandrakant Dada Patil said: “I am pleased to see that various state government departments are coming forward to adopt energy efficiency and help India keep a check on the energy consumption. I take this platform to invite other state governments and departments to adopt energy efficient practices and help India become truly energy efficient”.
S P Garnaik, CGM, Technical EESl said: “Through the Buildings Energy Efficiency Programme we want to bring in uniformity and obviate the need for state/central governments to allocate capital expenditure for building upgrade. The money saved from this intervention can be used for social welfare”
The EESl has implemented Buildings Energy Efficiency Programme in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi. In all, 4,145 buildings have already been identified under the energy efficient buildings programme. On its part, EESl has already completed work in 58 buildings.