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India |
India is facing electrical shortages, resulting in periodic blackouts and hampered economic growth. An additional 100,000 MW generating capacity will be required by 2012, according to the country's Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). Since it is generally cheaper to save a unit of electricity through energy efficiency than to generate that same amount at a power plant, the country's Energy Conservation Act of 2002 established ambitious goals for energy efficiency improvements in government facilities, as well as for other areas of the Indian economy. Pursuant to these goals, U.S. EPA, U.S. AID India, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA) established a partnership to promote energy efficiency in the public sector. As part of this effort, the PEPS-India project was launched in March, 2005. The PEPS team is currently (2007) working to obtain an endorsement from the Maharashtra Public Works Department on proposed specifications for linear (tube) fluorescent lighting components that will hopefully serve as the basis for a large-scale retrofit in Maharashtra's public buildings. PEPS estimates that this change-out–if fully implemented–would save the state at least US$1.5M per year. Another thrust of the PEPS-India work has been to identify and advocate low-cost measures to save energy in existing public buildings in Maharashtra. Part of that effort involves promotion of already occurring best practices in the state. Two case studies, one on a state-run hospital (JJ Hospital Case Study.pdf - 272 KB) and another on a Mumbai office building that houses the state electricity board (MSEB Case Study.pdf - 268 KB), demonstrate the impressive savings potential from equipment scheduling, simple lighting retrofits, and well-promoted employee awareness programs. | |