Energium 2004 brings to light need and measures of energy efficiency
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Energium 2004 brings to light need and measures of energy efficiency
E-Tex Staff - Mumbai
Energium 2004, organised jointly by the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) and the United States - Environmental Resource Centre (US-ERC), in Mumbai recently, emphasised the need for energy efficiency, through its two-day conference, ‘Energy Efficiency in Commercial Establishments’. Speaking on the occasion, Ms Leena Mehendale, executive director, PCRA stated, “It’s not just enough to have energy efficient solutions, a change in attitude is is important, creating awareness about energy is important.”
Said Mr Suneel Parasnis, director general, United States - Asia Environmental Partnership/USAID, western region, in his address, said, “We have reached a situation where we are forced to adopt energy efficiency as a way of life and business. We have no option.”
According to Mr V S Verma, director general, Bureau of Energy Efficiency and Member Planning, Central Electricity Authority, “Per capita energy consumption in India is still very low when compared to that in the developed countries. However, the pressure to save energy is just as urgent here. While effecting savings, energy efficiency also results in better cost-competitiveness, and also reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. All these issues are becoming increasingly important in a global marketplace.”
He further stated that India has an energy shortage of around 17.1 per cent, and even as the higher energy generation of 41,000 MW in the 10th Plan will be achieved, the demand for energy is also increasing very fast, as standard of living improves. In this scenario, energy conservation and efficiency is the only way to move ahead,” he said.
According to Ms Mehendale, “There is still a lot that needs to be done towards energy conservation and efficiency. Awareness is sadly lacking. The Bureau of Indian Standards has prescribed norms for manufacturing of equipment, which have to be voluntarily applied, but we have come across a number of equipment which do not meet these standards. At times, simple adjustments in the design of equipment can lead to immense energy saving and better efficiency, but this is not done due to lack of knowledge. At other times, standards are not met as these require some amount of investment, making the product that much costlier, so energy efficiency is sacrificed for low costs. We have still a long way to go in creating awareness about energy efficiency and then getting people to adopt such systems and solutions.”
Speakers at the conference included Dr Pramod Deo, member, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission; Mr S Padmanaban, senior energy and environment advisor, USAID; Mr A U Diggikar, director general, Maharashtra Energy Development Agency; Dr Naval Karrir, director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; Mr E S Balasubramaniam, DGM, State Bank of India; Mr Jaisingh Dhumal, chief manager, ICICI Bank; Mr Abraham Varghese, head, energy management group, Enercon Systems; Ms Rupa Devi Singh, director, power practice, CRISIL; among others.
Dr Pramod Deo, in his paper on ‘Regulatory Issues and Energy Efficiency in Commercial Establishments’ spoke about the Electricity Act 2003 (EC 2003), which addresses the issue of improvement of energy efficiency directly for supply options, while the demand side is left to the ingenuity of the state electricity regulation commissions (SERCs). “It is well known that in order to give rightful palce to demand side management options, the regulators need to adopt Integrated Energy Resource Planning (IREP). IREP evaluates demand and supply-side options and determines the optimal energy service strategy that takes account of economic and environment factors. This brings into sharp focus the use of alternative energy supply options.”
Mr S Padmanaban, in his paper on ‘Policy and program initiatives to advance energy efficiency in commercial establishments’ spoke of the need for design of conservation strategies in commercial establishments. “There was a misconception that buildings in India did not consume much energy. However, the ground realities were different: in city after city air conditioning was beginning to grow rapidly and together with lighting, is a major contributor to peak load. Today, efficiency opportunities are being recognised by commercial builders, building appliance vendors, architects and design firms, etc.” He further stated that three key areas need to be addressed - regulations and market-driven prices, innovative financing with emphasis on risk coverage, and transforming technologies to reflect enhanced energy efficiency.
The push to adopt energy efficient solutions and systems is also coming from the financial sector, which has put in place schemes to boost investment in such ventures. The State Bank Of India (SBI) has initiated the ‘Energy Efficiency Project’. “An amount of Rs 190 lakh has been set apart for implementation of this pilot project, covering 140 units across the country. The bank will identify units enjoying credit limits which have investments in plant and machinery less than Rs 10 crore. Consultants will be empanelled at various centres and walk-in audits conducted with their help. The consultants will study all aspects of energy management, as per the bank’s standard format, prepare detailed project report on energy efficiency measures and its implementation,” said Mr E S Balasubramanian, DGM, SBI.
Other topics discussed at the summit were the latest energy saving technologies, making buildings energy efficient, ESCO approach to guaranteed energy savings, energy auditing, etc.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Detergent, urea in your child’s milk
Aditya Ghosh, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, June 16, 2007
One in every five packets of milk is adulterated in the state with chemicals such as caustic soda and urea.
While caustic soda, an acid found in detergents, damages the digestive tract including the stomach lining, urea can damage the urinary system and lead to the formation of stones in the kidney.
After a year’s investigation, the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the findings about milk in Maharashtra on Friday.
It is now launching a massive drive to check milk quality across the state. Even tankers coming from outside the state will be stopped at highway checkposts and samples taken.
When two owners of large dairies were contacted, they said their dairies did not produce such adulterated milk and refused to say anything else.
Among 761 samples tested between April 2006 and May 2007 from state cooperatives as well as private diaries, 151 samples were adulterated.
A report on 100-odd samples is awaited. The adulterants varied from chemicals like washing soda and urea to non-synthetic material like palm oil, liquid glucose and lactose. The FDA refused to say which dairies it had taken samples from.
Prosecution has started in only 27 cases. Soon after the FDA received the report, a high-level meeting was convened by the Home Department in the Mantralaya.
“The chief minister had attended the meeting and we are trying to evolve some strategy to counter this. He wants to make provisions for much stronger punitive action against the offenders,” said outgoing principal secretary of animal husbandry and dairy development department Leena Mehendale.
“From June, we launched a massive operation and in eight days collected 53 samples, arrested four people. We are waiting for the reports on the samples,” said FDA Commissioner Amitabh Chandra.
The samples had urea higher than the safety limit of 700 ppm, which experts correlated with indiscriminate use of fertilisers in cattle fodder. “It is a strong possibility. Also, fertilisers seeping into groundwater are affecting the quality of grass,” said Pune-based veterinarian Aniruddha Belsare.
In Mumbai, experts said some dairies added urea as adulterant to enhance colour and texture. “However, they did not realise that the natural urea content in milk was increasing all the time because of rampant use of fertilisers in fodder. Now, it is crossing the safety threshold,” said Dr JC Khanna, secretary, Parel Animal Hospital.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
The future of energy security in hydrogen and renewable energy sources
Publication Date:31-October-04
Source: Asia Intelligence Wire
The era of oil and natural gas is "slowly coming to an end", thanks to the environmental hazards created by way of emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), depletion of reserves and increasing political risks, the Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, M.S. Srinivasan, said here today.
The future of energy security would lie in hydrogen and renewable energy sources, including biofuel.
Addressing the inaugural session of the "Oil and Gas Meet - Focus on Latest Environmental Trends", last conference of the Energy Summit 2004 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr. Srinivasan said spending of thousands of crores in refineries to improve the quality of fuel and reduce sulphur and other pollutants, amounted to "tinkering" with the environmental hazard, which lay in the amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emitted by hydrocarbons.
Given the increase in global warming in the last century, equivalent to the rise in the temperature in the previous three millennia, and the fact that 15 out of the 16 warmest years recorded since 1860 had been seen since 1980, the limitations of oil and gas were obvious.
The "ubiquitous" nature of the use of oil and gas in transportation made environmental discipline more and more difficult.
Also, volatility in the prices of oil and gas was posing a "political risk" to governments everywhere because of consumer resistance.
Just as the first wave of industrialisation was fuelled by steam and the second wave by oil and gas, the third wave, characterised by the knowledge economy, would be fuelled by renewable energy sources and hydrogen.
India could not lag behind in researching and investing in the fuels of the future. The biggest problem posed by hydrogen was safe storage but even this was being overcome. The United States already had more than one thousand kilometre-long hydrogen pipelines. The world was also exploring the potential of the nano technology of carbon and Buckminster Fullerene pioneered by Prof. Harry Croto, which could meet the demands of the third energy wave, he added.
Leena Mehendale, Executive Director, Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), suggested privatisation of "branch lines" of oil and gas pipelines to find resources for distribution to consumers such as industrial clusters. She urged industry to support research and education of households on turning kitchen waste into fertilizers or fuel with appropriate digesters, so that the cost of transportation to landfills and use of oil in that process could be eliminated.
Dr. Mehendale said farmers were already taking to alternatives such as jatropa biofuel, irrespective of whether industry was ready for it. At Oddanthurai in Tamil Nadu women were generating power using wood gasifiers, and despite the problem of smoke, it was a comparably clean operation. The PCRA had received suggestions on recycling fumes emitted during unloading of oil in retail outlets, she said.
Source: Asia Intelligence Wire
The era of oil and natural gas is "slowly coming to an end", thanks to the environmental hazards created by way of emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), depletion of reserves and increasing political risks, the Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, M.S. Srinivasan, said here today.
The future of energy security would lie in hydrogen and renewable energy sources, including biofuel.
Addressing the inaugural session of the "Oil and Gas Meet - Focus on Latest Environmental Trends", last conference of the Energy Summit 2004 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr. Srinivasan said spending of thousands of crores in refineries to improve the quality of fuel and reduce sulphur and other pollutants, amounted to "tinkering" with the environmental hazard, which lay in the amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emitted by hydrocarbons.
Given the increase in global warming in the last century, equivalent to the rise in the temperature in the previous three millennia, and the fact that 15 out of the 16 warmest years recorded since 1860 had been seen since 1980, the limitations of oil and gas were obvious.
The "ubiquitous" nature of the use of oil and gas in transportation made environmental discipline more and more difficult.
Also, volatility in the prices of oil and gas was posing a "political risk" to governments everywhere because of consumer resistance.
Just as the first wave of industrialisation was fuelled by steam and the second wave by oil and gas, the third wave, characterised by the knowledge economy, would be fuelled by renewable energy sources and hydrogen.
India could not lag behind in researching and investing in the fuels of the future. The biggest problem posed by hydrogen was safe storage but even this was being overcome. The United States already had more than one thousand kilometre-long hydrogen pipelines. The world was also exploring the potential of the nano technology of carbon and Buckminster Fullerene pioneered by Prof. Harry Croto, which could meet the demands of the third energy wave, he added.
Leena Mehendale, Executive Director, Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), suggested privatisation of "branch lines" of oil and gas pipelines to find resources for distribution to consumers such as industrial clusters. She urged industry to support research and education of households on turning kitchen waste into fertilizers or fuel with appropriate digesters, so that the cost of transportation to landfills and use of oil in that process could be eliminated.
Dr. Mehendale said farmers were already taking to alternatives such as jatropa biofuel, irrespective of whether industry was ready for it. At Oddanthurai in Tamil Nadu women were generating power using wood gasifiers, and despite the problem of smoke, it was a comparably clean operation. The PCRA had received suggestions on recycling fumes emitted during unloading of oil in retail outlets, she said.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
An award that recognizes contribution PCRA 2004
An award that recognizes contribution
By Suvira Srivastav
‘Together, can we do it?’ asks the advertisement of the PCRA (Petroleum Conservation Research Association) Energy Conservation Awards 2003. And, TERI’s Bangalore office, the winner of both the Best Energy Auditors and Best Performance Improvement Award, has shown that a lot can be achieved in conservation.
‘This award’ writes Leena Mehendale, Executive Director, PCRA, to M K Halpeth, Fellow and Head of TERI’s Southern Regional centre, ‘proposes to honour and award individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contribution towards the cause of conservation of petroleum products’. This is because PCRA believes that, ‘Where conservation fails, pollution starts. And, where pollution ends, efficiency begins.’
So, the PCRA ‘Best Energy Auditors’ and ‘Best Performance’ awards were constituted and applications invited from corporates, organizations, and consultants, operating in the field.
Accordingly Halpeth adds, ‘We had sent full details of work done in the energy audits listing out details on energy saving opportunities, which helped the industries to initiate action for implementation and achieve energy savings. The feed back of three years work indicates that at least 60% of the identified saving potential mostly with the payback period of two years or less have already been implemented.’
The type of industries identified for this kind of saving by PCRA encompassed almost a gamut of industrial giants from iron and steel, paper and pulp, textiles, fertilizers, chemicals, to refineries.
Some other categories floated for the exemplary work in energy conservation involved small, medium and large projects.
All these awards were given to the respective winners on 30 January 2004, at a valedictory function of the Oil and Gas Conservation fortnight in Teen Murthi Bhavan, New Delhi.
By Suvira Srivastav
‘Together, can we do it?’ asks the advertisement of the PCRA (Petroleum Conservation Research Association) Energy Conservation Awards 2003. And, TERI’s Bangalore office, the winner of both the Best Energy Auditors and Best Performance Improvement Award, has shown that a lot can be achieved in conservation.
‘This award’ writes Leena Mehendale, Executive Director, PCRA, to M K Halpeth, Fellow and Head of TERI’s Southern Regional centre, ‘proposes to honour and award individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contribution towards the cause of conservation of petroleum products’. This is because PCRA believes that, ‘Where conservation fails, pollution starts. And, where pollution ends, efficiency begins.’
So, the PCRA ‘Best Energy Auditors’ and ‘Best Performance’ awards were constituted and applications invited from corporates, organizations, and consultants, operating in the field.
Accordingly Halpeth adds, ‘We had sent full details of work done in the energy audits listing out details on energy saving opportunities, which helped the industries to initiate action for implementation and achieve energy savings. The feed back of three years work indicates that at least 60% of the identified saving potential mostly with the payback period of two years or less have already been implemented.’
The type of industries identified for this kind of saving by PCRA encompassed almost a gamut of industrial giants from iron and steel, paper and pulp, textiles, fertilizers, chemicals, to refineries.
Some other categories floated for the exemplary work in energy conservation involved small, medium and large projects.
All these awards were given to the respective winners on 30 January 2004, at a valedictory function of the Oil and Gas Conservation fortnight in Teen Murthi Bhavan, New Delhi.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
demand, and not supply is the issue in biodiesel
http://www.indiatodaygroup.com/btoday/20051106/trends4.html
BUSINESS TODAY, 6 Nov 2005
Agreed that biodiesel is the need of the hour. But the Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar's diktat to public sector oil companies to start buying biodiesel to blend with their regular diesel (in a 5:95 ratio) has left them in a bind. "Even if we were to blend only 5 per cent of biodiesel, we will need more than 20 lakh tonnes per annum," says a senior executive in an oil company. India has an installed biodiesel capacity of 50 tonnes a day. But Leena Mehendale, Joint Secretary, Petroleum Ministry and Executive Director of Petroleum Conservation Research Association, says that demand, and not supply is the issue. "Once the oil companies start buying (biodiesel) on a regular basis, the capacities will be increased," she says. Quality is another issue. If biodiesel were to be sourced from disparate sources around the country, monitoring and ensuring quality will be near impossible. "Oil companies will have to install the equipment to check the standard of supplies," says Mehendale. There's hope for the biodiesel advocates yet. There's a lot of global interest in the sector. The UK's d1 Oils, for instance, plans to set up an 8,000-tonnes-a-year biodiesel refinery near Chennai by next year.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Implementation Report on CEDAW
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000215/nation.htm
Tuesday, February 15, 2000,
Chandigarh, India
The Tribune, Chandigarh
NEW DELHI, Feb 14 — Over 20 women organisations which deliberated on the government’s implementation report on the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) have suggested that they be taken into confidence by the government.
After going through the report presented by the government delegation during the recently concluded session of CEDAW in New York, the groups suggested that the government’s replies to the 76 questions posed by the UN committee were vague and incomplete.
The three-member delegation which attended the week-long session in January comprised the Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development, (DWCD) Mrs Kiran Aggarwal, the Joint Secretary in the NCW, Mrs Leena Mehendale and the Deputy Secretary in the department, Ms Rashmi Chaudhary.
The questions raised by the 23-member UN Committee on CEDAW pertained to the representation of women in the Supreme Court of India, the role of the NCW, dowry cases, property rights of women, gender sensitivasation of police officers and civil servants and the status of CEDAW in the Indian legal system.
The committee also raised questions on women policy makers in mass media, representation of women in Parliament, the fate of the Constitutional Amendment Bill for reservation for women, views of educated women on caste, bonded labour, gender bias in family planning programmes and polygamy.
Apart from this, 11 NGOs invited to the session also submitted a report.
Invited to the discussion by the NCW, participants felt that their views were not reflected in the government’s replies.
The women organisations have urged the NCW to forward a report on Monday’s deliberations to the government through the DWCD. They have said that the government should hold discussions with the NCW and the NGOs before the session on the status of women scheduled in March and another preparatory meeting in May on the Beijing Platform for Action.
Prominent women organisations represented at the meeting were the National Alliance of Women Organisations, the Joint Women’s Programme and the Guild of Service.
Tuesday, February 15, 2000,
Chandigarh, India
The Tribune, Chandigarh
NEW DELHI, Feb 14 — Over 20 women organisations which deliberated on the government’s implementation report on the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) have suggested that they be taken into confidence by the government.
After going through the report presented by the government delegation during the recently concluded session of CEDAW in New York, the groups suggested that the government’s replies to the 76 questions posed by the UN committee were vague and incomplete.
The three-member delegation which attended the week-long session in January comprised the Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development, (DWCD) Mrs Kiran Aggarwal, the Joint Secretary in the NCW, Mrs Leena Mehendale and the Deputy Secretary in the department, Ms Rashmi Chaudhary.
The questions raised by the 23-member UN Committee on CEDAW pertained to the representation of women in the Supreme Court of India, the role of the NCW, dowry cases, property rights of women, gender sensitivasation of police officers and civil servants and the status of CEDAW in the Indian legal system.
The committee also raised questions on women policy makers in mass media, representation of women in Parliament, the fate of the Constitutional Amendment Bill for reservation for women, views of educated women on caste, bonded labour, gender bias in family planning programmes and polygamy.
Apart from this, 11 NGOs invited to the session also submitted a report.
Invited to the discussion by the NCW, participants felt that their views were not reflected in the government’s replies.
The women organisations have urged the NCW to forward a report on Monday’s deliberations to the government through the DWCD. They have said that the government should hold discussions with the NCW and the NGOs before the session on the status of women scheduled in March and another preparatory meeting in May on the Beijing Platform for Action.
Prominent women organisations represented at the meeting were the National Alliance of Women Organisations, the Joint Women’s Programme and the Guild of Service.
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