NEW DELHI: India has saved 17 million tonnes of oil equivalent every year and reduced 87 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum under the Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) Scheme, the power ministry said on Tuesday.
Besides, India saved 56 billion units of electricity during 2020-21, worth over Rs 30,000 crore under energy efficiency standards (or Star) labelling programme for appliances.
The PAT initiative is currently leading to energy savings of about 17 MTOE (million tonnes of oil equivalent) and has resulted in mitigation of about 87 million tonnes of CO2 per year, a figure close to total CO2 emissions of country like Bangladesh, the ministry said in a statement.
By the year 2020, the scheme coverage has been extended to 13 most energy intensive sectors, including cement, iron and steel, fertiliser, thermal power plants, refineries, petrochemicals, railways and others.
The ministry of power is implementing measures to save energy with an objective to reduce CO2 emission levels in the environment from industries, establishments and by using equipment/ appliances.
In this regard, the PAT scheme is a key programme for large industries and establishments.
This scheme aims to enhance the cost-effectiveness of energy savings by upgrading technologies or by taking in-house actions to minimise energy consumption.
The scheme provides mandatory targets for the identified large units and the excess energy saved by them is issued as Energy Saving Certificates, which are tradable instruments.
The different industries and establishments are assigned separate energy efficiency targets based on their levels of energy consumption and the potential for energy savings.
Appliances are the main points for electricity consumption at household level or at office and commercial establishments.
In view of the rapid growth in high energy consumer goods, the demand for electrical energy has been increasing every year.
This rising demand can be optimised, if the consumers prefer high efficiency appliances.
To enable market transformation of efficient products, Standards and Labeling (S&L) Program was introduced by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
The objective of S&L is to provide the consumers an informed choice about the energy savings potential and thereby the cost saving due to the products available in the market.
The scheme includes display of energy performance labels on key energy consuming equipment and appliances, with stipulation for minimum energy performance standards.
The scheme has now included 28 appliances till March 2021 and over 15,000 models of energy efficient products have been awarded Star labels, a popular symbol among the consumers for endorsing energy savings, it stated.
The impact of using a huge number of efficient products by citizens have resulted in an estimated electricity savings of 56 billion units during 2020-21, worth over Rs 30,000 crore, it said.
This initiative has been effective in reducing the CO2 emissions of about 46 million tonnes every year.
Such steps have become very effective and a simplified approach is considered more useful to promote energy efficiency globally.
Many countries have followed this labelling programme, thereby reaping benefits of energy savings and also in reducing CO2 emissions, the ministry noted.