Demand Side Efficiency

Demand side efficiency can be managed with energy efficient end usage. Around two-thirds of the energy is lost while converting primary, secondary and final energy into useful energy services.  Improving the energy efficiency of end-use applications would further help in energy conservation. Although we will discuss this issue in detail in Units 4 and 5 of this block, we would like to set the tone of the discussion right here. The Indian consumer market is extremely price sensitive; consumers prefer lower initial capital outlay to optimization of lifecycle costs.

A case in point is the lower efficiency of rewound motors, which constitute nearly 50% of the capital stock in the low and medium capacity range. This is where the implementation of compulsory energy efficiency standards can promote energy efficient options.  Minimum energy efficiency standards need to be formulated and rigorously implemented for moving the users and the market in the direction of efficient energy use. The development of compulsory energy efficiency standards for end-use applications by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency should be able to bring this about.

Industries require heating/ cooling, rotating machines, shop floor lighting, etc. Necessary measures can be taken to minimize heat loss, use energy efficient rotating machines and lamps. These will not reduce the effectiveness of the processes but will definitely reduce energy consumption. Liberalization and competition, as in the cement industry, coupled with proactive and focused schemes for upgrading technology and development, as in the sugar industry, have worked well in improving the energy efficiency of the Indian industry.

In fact, industries today are going in for retrofitting energy efficient equipments to reduce the cost of extra energy consumption. Right from using energy efficient lamps to energy efficient motors, to getting energy audits done, many industries are successfully saving on their energy bills. You can go through the case study given below to appreciate what can be done by an industry to improve energy efficiency.

Little by has been provided to the planning and layout of urban habitations with a view to decrease the energy demand made through civic amenities and the transportation sector. We require maximizing public transportation facilities as opposed to private transportation. While car manufacturers are developing more and more energy efficient vehicles to minimize the resource usage, stress should be laid on minimizing fuel usage or making it more proficient.  Same, higher levels of electrification in the railways could increase their energy efficiency. These, therefore, are system- wide changes which could be implemented only if the concept of energy efficiency is integrated within town planning and architecture.

Although technology is trying to cope up along with the growth rate of population and demand for energy, it is the individual consumer's behavioural pattern in which could drastically decrease energy consumption. For instance, we can save energy through taking easy steps such as car pools to travel to office or CFLs to light our homes.

Non-commercial energy resources continue to be the dominant fuel used through the urban poor and in rural areas and this accounts for around 42% of the energy losses. Improvement in energy efficiency in this area has important equity considerations. The energy efficiency of non-commercial energy resources in traditional applications is less than 10%. This can be doubled through gasification and by imposed end-use applications. Technology to extract these efficiencies is being developed. Therefore, implementation is slow.

Non-commercial energy resources could be commercialized into decentralized energy systems which are accessible to the local people, are technologically associatively unsophisticated, and could be locally managed.  Thus, we would required to improve the efficiency along with that locally available natural resources are used to provide energy to rural users.

Energy is the lifeline of modern societies. In fact, the energy distribution among developed and developing countries is highly skewed in favour of the former. We would like you to know this gap to be able to envision the future mission of the power sector.