AP emerges front runner in energy efficiency steps

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh has set a record once again by emerging as the ‘front-runner State’ at national-level in the field of energy efficiency as per the State Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index released by Bureau of Energy Efficiency and NITI Aayog.

The World Bank has already ranked Andhra Pradesh as number one in the Energy Efficiency Implementation Readiness. Now, the state has been declared by the BEE (Ministry of Power) in the first edition of the EE Index as front runner state due to its outstanding performance in the energy sector followed by Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

The BEE has given this rank after examining the state’s policies and regulations, adoption of energy efficiency, energy savings and other key parameters. Though the Index has identified five best performing states, AP, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan, it mentioned that the Andhra Pradesh has done exceedingly well in adopting energy efficiency measures, particularly in the municipalities and agriculture and domestic sector.

The BEE in its latest report communicated to Ajay Jain, principal secretary to Energy department and the CRDA, said “The Andhra Pradesh, as a front runner, has several programmes in place for driving energy efficiency in buildings, municipalities, DISCOMs and industry through PAT (Perform, Achieve and Trade) scheme.

The state could, however, improve programmes for EE in transport sector.” The report also observed that while most states limited themselves to one or more programmes driven by BEE, the AP and other front runner states are implementing their own initiatives.

The Index has 63 indicators in all--59 across buildings, industry, municipalities, transport, agriculture and Discoms and four cross-cutting indicators, such as policy and regulations, financing mechanisms, institutional capacity, adoption of EE measures and energy savings in each sector.

During a tele-conference, principal secretary for energy and APCRDA Ajay Jain briefed Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that the EE Index revealed that Amaravati has been awarded Indian Green Building Council’s (IGBC) Platinum Award for its master plan and design.