Centre tells States to follow AP in energy efficiency

Vijayawada: The Union Ministry of Power in a letter advised the States to establish stand-alone State Designated Agencies (SDAs) on the lines of Andhra Pradesh for promotion of efficient use of energy and its conservation as the government has embarked upon achieving reduction of around 550 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030 thorough a number of energy efficiency measures, besides saving of 500 billion units of electricity.

AP State Energy Efficiency Corporation (APSEEDCO) has been set up by the state government for energy efficiency and conservation in the State.  In a teleconference on Sunday, principal secretary for energy and APCRDA Ajay Jain briefed the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that as per the letter of the Centre, only AP and Kerala established dedicated stand-alone State Designated Agencies (SDAs) out of the 35 states/Union Territories in the country so far.

“The successful efforts of AP in implementing energy efficiency programmes came in for appreciation by the Union ministry and it has also advised other states (other than Kerala) to fall in line of AP,” Ajay Jain said. In another significant development, he said the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) has specially mentioned the AP government in its special bulletin on the eve of an international summit on Energy Efficiency in Emerging Economics in New Delhi.

He also said the IEA, during an international event in Paris in 2015, had already evinced interest in sharing best practices in energy efficiency with Andhra Pradesh. The State had also received big applause from the IEA for its endeavour, including retrofitting of LED streetlighting with conventional lights and distribution of LED bulbs to one crore families.

The World Bank ranked AP No 1 energy efficiency implementation readiness,  Ajay Jain said. Responding to this, Naidu advised the energy department to study the best global practices in energy efficiency and strive to make the AP the best state in energy efficiency in the world. “As I had already told the officials during the recent Collectors’ Conference, special efforts should be laid to strengthen the AP State Energy Efficiency Corporation for vigorous implementation of energy efficiency measures in the state. I want to remind all the government departments again to take serious note of energy efficiency activities in their respective departments to become role model for the common people.”