Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal has said that the Central government has agreed in principle to invest around Rs. 5,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh for replacement of inefficient / ordinary agricultural pump sets with energy efficient ones.
“The Central government is keen on fully supporting state governments, which are performing well in power sector and energy efficiency and energy conservation in particular,” he said at a National Workshop on Agricultural Demand Side Management, which was organised by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) in New Delhi on Monday.
Mr. Goyal said the Centre had decided to showcase the performance of Andhra Pradesh on the energy efficiency front i.e., Demand side Energy Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP) and installation of Energy Efficient LED Street lighting Project, to other States.
The Centre is focusing on Andhra Pradesh for effective and timely implementation of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)’s star-rated higher energy efficient pump sets scheme, the Minister added.
According to the plan, more than 20 million pumpsets will be replaced with energy efficient ones in the country to achieve energy savings of 46 billion Kilo watt Hour (KWH). The initiative will lead to an annual reduction in emission of greenhouse gases by 45 million tons of CO2.
Meanwhile, BEE Director-General B.P. Pandey suggested to Energy Secretary Ajay Jain to send reports on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency to other proactive States for achieving the desired goals.
K. Ranganatham, Advisor to Energy Department of Andhra Pradesh, made a presentation on the success story of the State in power sector in the areas of augmentation of power generation, 80 per cent Plant Load Factor, adopting super critical boiler technology for thermal power stations and reduction of T & D losses from 17 per cent to 10.35 per cent.
Source:The Hindu
