In a bid to ensure efficient use of power, the NITI Aayog has urged the State Government for bringing the residential buildings within the purview of energy efficiency norms in a time-bound manner.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitbah Kant has written to the Odisha Government in this regard favoring the recommendations of the Regional Workshops on Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC).
Kant has said that five regional workshops on ECBC implementation in States were organized by the NITI Aayog in partnership with the AEEE and with support from UNDP-BEE-GEF Project.
According to one of the major recommendations, inclusion of the residential sector is needed looking into growing energy demands of the domestic sector.
So the State Government may consider exploring inclusion of residential sector at the earliest to reap higher energy efficiency benefits in the building sector as a whole, said Kant.
He said that there is lack of clarity between officials of the Department of Urban Development and Department of Energy as to who will be responsible for ensuring compliance of ECBC provisions, while approving building plans.
A coordination mechanism is needed to be instituted so that huge opportunity of saving energy in the building sector can be gained, said he.
An apex committee headed by the State Chief Secretary and a steering committee headed by the Principal Secretary Energy or Urban Development needed to be formed to provide necessary direction and guidance for implementation of the ECBC.
In the meantime, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in technical cooperation with Energy Efficiency Services ltd (EESl) had concluded implementation of energy conservation measures in two prominent Government buildings, i.e. NITI Aayog and Shram Shakti Bhawan in New Delhi, which house various Government departments.
In the NITI Aayog building, it has been demonstrated that energy saving has been achieved in the range of 35-40 per cent.
looking at the success, it has been suggested that a few landmark buildings, like State secretariat, hospitals and other buildings can be taken up for energy efficiency drive.
For continuous improvement, monitoring of performance is essential.
Mandating disclosure of energy use for all public and private commercial buildings with a connected load of 100 Kilo Watt or more will go a long way in ensuring better energy management.
lauding Telengana, the NITI Aayog CEO said that there is a need for development of online tools and Telengana has initiated the process and the model is needed to be adopted in the State, which will make the process of building in energy efficiency hassle free.
As a first major step to start with, the NITI Aayog has urged the State Government to notify the ECBC notification in the State Gazette as only 10 States have notified although 10 years have been passed since introduction of the ECBC in the country and this is needed to be fast tracked, said he.