CHENNAI, May 7: Conservation of energy would be a better solution to solving energy problems and will also aid environmental improvement. This was the theme of the inaugural session of the workshop on Energy and Environmental Audits organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here recently.

Increase in supply capacities without promoting more efficient use of energy will increase the amount of capital invested.

This will lead to wastage of environmental and financial resources and hence eclipse the sustainable economic growth.

The ADB which has been financing the energy sector of many developing countries is deeply conscious of this, including India said CS Chung, head, PAU ADB .

As a part of its re-orientation in the areas of energy conservation and environment improvement, the government of India and the ADB have signed an agreement for launching a technical assistance for the energy efficiency support project on February 21, under which the bank is providing the government with $3 million grant money provided by the Netherlands, he said. The Investment Credit and Industrial Corporation of India (ICICI), CII, Energy Management Centre (EMC) and Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) were the agencies implementing the project.

As the first phase of the project, key sectors of the economy like cement, steel, fertilisers, sugar, paper and fertilisers were selected for the audit the study added.

The second phase would be a feasibility study, said Chung.

In his welcome address, Venu Srinivasan, the newly elected chairman of CII, southern region said that though the need for energy audits had been mooted, the speed with which such audits were implemented left much to be desired. Concurring with this was Bhaskar Natarajan, director, energy management centre, government of India.

The role of the government was to provide support to the private sector agencies which had taken up such initiatives. Already the EMC had engaged around 20 consultants of which a majority were in the private sector. A disheartening trend was that these agencies backed off when the EMC suggested providing support on a cost sharing basis.

A good sign is that now state governments are taking more interest in such audits and making them mandatory. Legislation in this area is also likely to be introduced in the near future, he said.

SP Nagarkatte, general manager, ICICI said that the institution would now look at energy management projects which are viable and offer them the requisite funding.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.