Tuesday, December 16, 2014: Power Minister Piyush Goyal says that the adoption of energy efficient ways would help in reducing the electricity consumption and also in accumulating savings of worth Rs 500,000 million. While highlighting up on the importance of energy consumption, he said that all the government buildings in the country would be equipped with energy saving LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulbs within next two years.
He said, “India produces about 10,00,000 million units of electricity and if a ten per cent saving (energy) is made that can save 100,000 million units.” While speaking at the National Energy Conservation Day function in capital, Goyal noted that this much of savings would be equivalent to as much as ‘Rs 500,000 million’ savings which can perhaps be used to light up the residences of almost 50 million people, who are not getting the required electricity.
Considering that the energy conservation would contribute majorly towards the economic progress of the country, Goyal stated that the set target of 100,000 million units of electricity savings should be realised by 2015 end. Goyal said, “If we do it (using LED) in two years, the prices would also come down as economies of scale would be there.” He even suggested that the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds of the companies and be used towards this initiative.
During the function, there was also a suggestion about setting a toll-free number in each state, where the people can register their complaints regarding the wastage of power due to not switching off the street lighting system during day time, to which Goyal responded that the officials would be asked to make this toll-free number operational by 31 January’ 2015 for all the states and union territories. The minister has also launched the ‘energysavers.co.in’ portal, which has been set up to spread awareness about energy efficiency in the states.