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• With the opening of the power sector and introduction of competition through the Electricity Act, 2003, the sector has marched towards efficiency and with desirable bestThe 21st century has perhaps seen the best of efforts in relation to energy management and energy security. This century has seen many initiatives in the efficiency targeted towards energy management. The industry has matured from “produce or perish” to “produce at merit”.With the opening of the power sector and introduction of competition through the Electricity Act, 2003, the sector has marched towards efficiency and with desirable best. Power industry in particular is at its spiralling best of optimized use of energy and efficiency in all its business segments namely generation, transmission, distribution and end-user consumption.
• In the power generation sector alone, there has been a quantum leap in technology, and the sector has seen the introduction of supercritical technology and very large unit sizes for higher thermal efficiency and sustained reliability—availability and reliability that compare with the best in the world. The sector is likely to see 75% of its future capacity additions with these units. This has resulted in reduced impact on environment due to higher thermal efficiency to the extent of 5-6% for every watt of power production. Adoption of larger unit sizes of 660-1,000 megawatts (MW) with supercritical technology has led to the advantages: lower space, savings in fuel, reduced greenhouse emissions and load cycling—better part load efficiency compared with the earlier sub-critical technology.
• Further, there is a focus on reducing the auxiliary energy consumption (energy that is consumed by the power plant to produce power). A significant drop in auxiliary consumption has been achieved, from about 9% to 6-7%, using energy-saving devices such as variable frequency drive motors and steam turbine-driven boiler feed pumps in place of electric-driven pumps. The use of washed coal further lowers the auxiliary consumption, which is an effort that needs to be pursued. The industry has brought in new concepts in many areas such as using screw compressors in compressed air system in place of reciprocating compressors, etc.; modular bus system with IP protocols for instrumentation and control area, doing away with electromechanical relays for power house operation management. In spite of the capital cost being high, many power stations (depending on the location) are opting for “natural draft cooling towers” in place of “induced draft cooling towers” to reduce energy consumption. The concept being, energy saved is energy generated.
• Coal is the lifeline of the power sector. The Indian government in the last annual budget introduced a clean energy cess of Rs. 50 per tonne, which is meant for cross-subsidizing production of renewable energy generation in the country. India till 2005 used to be one of the leaders in wind energy, which was completely an initiative of the textile sector starting in a village in Tamil Nadu. More than 300 companies are recipients of carbon credits on this initiative from developed countries.
• To reduce transmission losses and efficiency, the transmission sector has taken the lead to install 765 kV and 800 kV AC transmission lines and high voltage direct current lines (HVDC), with state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd commissioning the first 1,200 kV ultra high voltage alternating current system in Madhya Pradesh. These are significant steps in energy saving and optimization with better technology. So also are the initiatives in the distribution segment. Initiatives such as smart grid, demand-side management with CFL and LED lamps and signage for promoting efficiency at the supply side have already been taken up in the country. The use of “time of the day meters” for industry is a significant step in this direction which has ensured industry realizes the load cycles better, even though the country still needs to introduce the time of day tariff to make an impact on the savings. Smart grid is a digitally enabled electrical grid that collects information from the field devices such as transformers and circuit breakers on the behaviour of grid participants (generators and consumers) and acts on this information to improve the efficiency, reliability of supply.
• To promote energy efficiency in end-user consumption, the ministry of power in association with Ficci and CII has mandated the use of Bureau of Energy Efficiency’s standardizing and labelling (S&L) programme under which many products have been registered under the compulsory labelling regime with the objective to increase consumer awareness and develop energy-efficient appliances. There has been a verified energy saving of 2,162MW of avoided generation capacity during the year 2010-11 because of the implementation of the S&L scheme. The unverified energy saving up to two quarters of the year 2011-12 is reported to be 1,045MW of avoided generation capacity. Similarly, Energy Conservation Building Code programme mandates minimum energy standards for residential and commercial buildings/complexes. Perform, achieve and trade (PAT) scheme, promoted by the power ministry, targets reducing specific energy consumption in 685 designated consumers across nine industrial sectors. The national target of energy saving to the tune of 10 million tonnes of oil equivalent, including railways, has been kept in the first PAT cycle which will be for a period of three years from the date of notification (April 2011).
• Proposed introduction of trading of “energy saving certificates” at the power exchanges by industry participants will become a primer for the industry and a wake-up call for optimization of the processes and energy savings. This is an industry-led initiative along with the government. A substantial amount of inefficiency and wastages is being addressed through this mechanism.Reduction in energy demand and consumption at the end-user’s premises can free up electricity generation, transmission and distribution capacity at a fraction of the costs required to provide new capacity. All the initiatives taken in various segments of the power sector to promote energy efficiency have resulted in substantial cost savings and promoting energy efficiency. This is a prudent approach from an economic point of view as well.

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