US energy visionary award for Ajay Mathur, DG, Bureau of Energy Efficiency
12 May 2010
New Delhi: US-based Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) has conferred the Dr Ajay Mathur, director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body, under union ministry of power, with the Energy Efficiency Visionary Award.
Dr Mathur, also a member of the prime minister's council on climate change, has led the Bureau in driving India's market transformation towards energy efficiency.
During 2007-08 and 2008-09, BEE's energy saving measures resulted in direct verified savings of 10,259 million units of electricity, and 5 million tons oil-equivalent of fuel savings.
With new programmes on the anvil focussing on large industries and on super-efficient appliances, BEE expects to show higher achievements in the medium to long term.
The BEE, under the ministry of power, was set up to institutionalise and strengthen delivery mechanism for energy efficiency policies in the country. It has launched India's standards and labelling programme for equipment and appliances, its energy conservation building code and programmes for industrial energy efficiency and demand-side management in the buildings, lighting, and municipal sectors.
More recently, the BEE's Bachat Lamp Yojana has become the world's biggest clean development mechanism (CDM) to gain United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) approval.