The Bureau initiated the Standards & Labeling programme for equipment and appliances in 2006 to provide the consumer an informed choice about the energy saving and thereby the cost saving potential of the relevant marketed product. The scheme is invoked for 21 equipment / appliances, i.e. Room Air Conditioners, Cassette Type & floor standing ACs air conditioners, Tubular Fluorescent Lamps, Frost Free Refrigerators, Distribution Transformers, Direct Cool Refrigerator, Electric Geysers, Color TVs, variable capacity air conditioners, LED lamps, Induction Motors, Ceiling fans, Agricultural pump sets, LPG stoves, Washing machine, Laptops, ballast, office automation products, Diesel Generating sets, Solid state Inverter and Diesel pump-sets out of which the first 10 products have been notified under mandatory labeling and remaining appliances are presently under voluntary labeling phase. For the mandatory products, no unlabelled products must be available in the market with effect from the date of various notifications.
The Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) of the Bureau sets minimum energy standards for commercial buildings having a connected load of 100kW or contract demand of 120 KVA and above. While the Central Government has powers under the EC Act 2001, the state governments have the flexibility to modify the code to suit local or regional needs and notify them. Presently, 17 States namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura, Ut of Andaman & Nicobar Island & Puducherry have notified ECBC for their states. 10 more in the final leg of notification: Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Nagaland, & Goa.
Under the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) schemes, energy saving targets for energy intensive industries belonging to 8 sectors were notified in 2012. In the first cycle of PAT (ending in year 2014-15), 478 industrial units in 8 sectors (Aluminium, Cement, Chlor- Alkali, Fertilizer, Iron & Steel, Paper & Pulp, Thermal Power, Textile) were mandated to reduce their specific energy consumption (SEC) i.e. energy used per unit of production. Overall, the SEC reduction targets envisaged to secure 4.05% reduction in energy consumption in these industries totalling an energy saving of 6.686 million tonne of oil equivalent (mtoe). However, the reported savings at the end of PAT cycle – I is 8.64 mtoe. The SDAs played a vital role in Monitoring & Verification of these targets. SDAs carried out checking of the forms and documents submitted by DCs as mentioned under PAT Rule 6. During the PAT cycle – II which has begun from 1st April, 2016, 621 industrial units have been covered from 11 sectors (with inclusion of DISCOMs, Railways and Refineries). Savings of 8.869 mtoe is envisaged at the end of PAT cycle – II, i.e. by March, 2019. Further, the Bureau has already brought Commercial Building and Petrochemicals under the ambit of PAT cycle – IV which has initiated from April, 2018.
The section 17 of the EC Act provides an insight for procedures behind the appointment of inspecting officers by the State Designated Agency to ensure effective implementation of the enforcement mechanism for the mandatory schemes on energy efficiency. Since the inspecting officer will be a State Govt. servant and for matters related to inspection, will consult with energy professionals (Accredited Energy Auditors, BEE certified Energy Auditors and Managers), it is important that these Inspecting Officers are needed to be trained about the manner and procedure of inspection. Since these energy professionals like certified energy auditors are mostly employed and they may not be able to provide sufficient time to the inspectors, the availability of trained energy professionals to support the inspectors will be a key issue.
It is also very important that the defaulters identified through Inspection or Non- compliance may be taken into account through the adjudication process at the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) which involves appointment of Adjudicating Officers by the SERCs. List of Adjudicating Officer along with name and address is as follows-
S. No. |
State |
SERC |
Adjudicating Officer Name |
1 |
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Goa, Lakshadweep, Puducherry |
JOINT ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION (for the State of Goa and Union Territories) |
Smt. Neerja Mathur |
2 |
Arunachal Pradesh |
ARUNACHAL PRADESH STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri R.P. Singh |
3 |
Andhra Pradesh |
ANDHRA PRADESH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Under Process |
4 |
Assam |
ASSAM ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Deepak Chakravarty |
5 |
Bihar |
BIHAR STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Ramesh Kumar Chaudhary |
6 |
Chhattisgarh |
CHHATTISGARH STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Arun Kumar Sharma |
7 |
Delhi |
DELHI ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri B.P. Singh |
8 |
Gujarat |
GUJARAT ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri P.J. Thakkar |
9 |
Haryana |
HARYANA ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Pravindra Singh Chauhan |
10 |
Himachal Pradesh |
HIMACHAL PRADESH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Bhanu Pratap Singh |
11 |
Jammu and Kashmir(JAKEDA) |
J&K STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Under Process |
12 |
Jharkhand |
JHARKHAND STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sh R.N Singh |
13 |
Karnataka |
KARNATAKA ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri H.M. Manjunatha |
14 |
Kerala |
KERALA STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri K. Vikraman Nair |
15 |
Madhya Pradesh |
MADHYA PRADESH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Shri Anil Kumar Jha |
16 |
Maharashtra |
MAHARASHTRA ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Under Process |
17 |
Manipur, Mizoram |
JOINT ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION FOR MANIPUR & MIZORAM |
Under Process |
18 |
Meghalaya |
MEGHALAYA STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Under Process |
19 |
Nagaland |
NAGALAND ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Under Process |
20 |
Odisha |
ORISSA ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Shri Sauri Kant Parhi |
21 |
Punjab |
PUNJAB STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Er. Santokh Singh Sarna |
22 |
Rajasthan |
RAJASTHAN ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Member(Technical) |
23 |
SIKKIM |
SIKKIM STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION (SSERC) |
Under Process |
24 |
Tamil Nadu |
TAMIL NADU ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Under Process |
25 |
TELANGANA |
TELANGANA STATE ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION (TSERC) |
Sri. Bandaru Krishnaiah |
26 |
Tripura |
TRIPURA ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Niharendu Chakraborty |
27 |
Uttar Pradesh |
UTTAR PRADESH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri S.K. Agarwal |
28 |
Uttarakhand |
UTTARAKHAND ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Subhash Kumar |
29 |
West Bengal |
WEST BENGAL ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
Sri Amitava Biswas |