Focus should be on energy efficiency

Chennai: The country's power policy requires a paradigm shift from energy conservation to energy efficiency and from energy inputs to effectiveness of energy use. Inaugurating a national workshop on the use of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) for energy conservation and better load management in New Delhi, the union minister of power P M Sayeed said, "It s paradoxical situation that on one side there is a shortage of power whereas on the other, there is substantial scope of energy saving in all sectors of the economy."

According to him since 1950 the country's installed generation capacity and electricity generation have increased about 69 times and 115 times respectively, but the country still faces about 12 per cent peak demand shortages and seven per cent energy shortages.

Approximately 12 per cent peaking shortages in the Indian power system occur for about an hour in the evening. This is primarily due to the lighting load - driven by large scale use of normal general lighting services (GLS) lamps. One 60w-GLS bulb can be replaced by a 15w-CFL at the same level of lighting output.

"It is estimated that replacement of just one such GLS lamp that is operational at the peak time by every household in the country can reduce the peak power demand by over 5,000mw. The potential of saving is much larger when we consider the remaining 56 per cent of the rural households, which are yet to be electrified within coming five years," the minister said.

He called upon the CFL manufacturers to bring down the cost and improve the quality through R&D and innovative manufacturing methods. Utilities can try to motivate the consumers to use CFL with the help of their 'demand side management' (DSM) programmes. Bulk consumers through widespread use of CFLs in their installations can set an example for smaller consumers.