Amid acute energy crisis coupled with badly ravaged indigenous power sector infrastructure in the natural calamity, the State Government has given a one-year deadline to all the Government, semi-Government and private organisations to switch to efficient use of energy and its conservation method from traditional power consumption mode.
Though the Uttarakhand Government had already passed an order titled as the ‘Uttarakhand efficient use of energy and its consumption directions-2013’ in May 2013, the recent natural catastrophe that the mountain State has gone through, has only necessitated adoption of that kind of energy saving mechanism.
Under the May 13 order regarding efficient use of energy and its conservation directions, the State Government has made use of solar water heating system mandatory for industries, semi-Government and private hospitals and nursing homes along with the Government hospitals, hotels, motels and banquet halls, jail barracks and canteens, housing complexes, all residential buildings built on a plot sized 500 square yards and above falling within the limits of municipal bodies, Government buildings, residential schools, hostels, to name a few.
Besides, the Government has also made mandatory use of compact fluorescent lamp (CFl), energy efficient tube light system for consumers in all industrial, commercial and institutional sectors having connected load of 30 kilo watt or above.
Besides, for all the Central Government offices, public sector undertaking institutions/ establishments located in the State, the use of CFls, energy efficient tube lights or light emitting diode (lED) lamps will also be mandatory as per the said guidelines.
The consumers above said categories will have to replace all the traditional bulb and tube lights in their establishment with CFls, lED lamps or energy efficient tube lights before on March 31, 2014 at their own cost.
Meanwhile, for all new tube-well connections in Uttarakhand, the use of ISI marked pumps and accessories has also made mandatory under the aforesaid efficient use of energy guidelines.
Similarly, it will also be mandatory that the street lighting in all existing and new colonies and urban areas notified by the urban development department, residential sectors, industrial estates, housing complexes, colonies and townships, developed by private, semi-Government/ autonomous institutions will use the energy efficient street lighting system.
All the aforesaid orgnisations responsible for street lighting system will have to replace the conventional street lights and install energy efficient streetlights on or before the March 31, 2014 deadline at their own cost.
The implementation of this ambitious efficient use of energy and its conservation plan will be done under the supervision of the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA).
In case of non-appliance of these directions, as per the guidelines of the May 13 order, the department concerned will have the power to disconnect the electricity connections after serving the due notice after expiry of the deadline i.e. March 31, 2014, said PC Sanwal, Statics Officer, UREDA, Dehradun.
The executive engineer (operation) of the power utilities department shall be the enforcing authority of these directions and they will send quarterly progress report in this regard to the Director, UREDA as per the aforesaid order, he added.
This is an important decision of the Government towards efficient use of energy and its conservation, said lD Sharma, Project Officer, UREDA, Haldwani, while talking to The Pioneer.
Now the process is on to create awareness about this policy and its implementation, Sharma added.