“Country on path to achieve 100% household electrification by 31 March, 2019 and our next goal is 24*7 power for all households” said RK Singh Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy. He congratulated States for electrifying 2.5 crore households under Saubhagya in a record time of 17 months. Shri Singh was addressing the inaugural session of the Conference of Power and Renewable Energy Ministers of States and UTs at Gurugram today. The two-day Conference will review the implementation of various ongoing Schemes/ Programmes& deliberate on a host of issues pertaining to Power and Renewable Energy sectors.Power Minister also felicitated State Power Departments and DISCOMs for their achievements under Saubhagya. Laying the roadmap for achieving 24*7 power for all, Shri Singh said that this will be done by strengthening the distribution network, improving the DISCOMs health, reducing the transmission & distribution losses, using technology to improve billing and collection efficiency and energy efficiency. However the hours of power supplied to agriculture sector will be as per state's policies so as to reduce water wastage and prevent over exploitation ofour already stressed ground water resources.Addressing the conference, Shri Ajay Bhalla, Secretary, Power invited the States/UTs to share their views and work together to find solutions to the challenges faced by the Power Sector.The Conference is being attended by the Ministers and Secretaries of the States and Union territories and senior officials of the power & renewable energy sectors and Public Sector Undertakings under them. In the next two days, the delegates will discuss issues like- 24*7 Power For All, present situation analysis of thermal power, Intra-state and Inter-state transmission status, promoting energy efficiency and renewables for a less carbon intensive economy. New reforms such as UDAY-II – use of technology, improving metering/billing/collection and solar irrigation will also be discussed during the conference.
Star Labelling for Energy Efficient Homes launched
During the inaugural Shri R K Singh also launched Energy Efficiency Label for Residential Sector in India.Developed by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), this under the aegis of Ministry of Power Energy efficiency label programme, for Residential Buildings will provide the information to consumers on the energy efficiency programme standard of the Homes to be constructed across India.The objective of the labelling programme is to make an instrument over the energy performance of a home which will gradually lead to an effective tool while deciding over the home prices in future. It also aims to provide a benchmark to compare one home over the other on the energy efficiency standards so as to create a consumer driven market transformation solution for Energy Efficiency in housing sector.The proposed labelling program is expected to save substantial amount of electric energy through various energy efficiency efforts in houses nationwide. With the implementation of Energy efficiency label for Residential Buildings it is estimated to achieve an energy saving of up to 40% over the conventional houses with annual savings of 90 Billion Units by the year of 2030. Further, the Labelling mechanism will reduce in energy bills for home buyers. The likely CO2 emission deduction by 2030 will be 320 MT CO2 annually.