The resolution of doubling the rate of energy efficiency was adopted under India's leadership in G20 and the same resolution was adopted in COP28, now it is important that further work is done on translating this into reality in the 29 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Vishal Kapoor Chief Executive Officer (CEO), EESL told BW Businessworld.
"I think it is extremely important for everyone if they can come to some pathways. That was a resolution, but how to lay a road map, for doubling the rate of energy efficiency is the need of hour," said the CEO.
He said that energy efficiency operates on the demand side, while all the other measures towards decarbonisation are coming from the supply side where generations are going to meet the demand. But if you can work on reducing the demand itself, then the problem of meeting your demand reduces.
"If we see the Indian energy efficiency landscape, there are several sectors and a lot of those segments are using electricity. But industry and domestic are two segments where, if you put investments into energy efficiency, they will give you the maximum greenhouse gas emission reduction per unit of investment," Kapoor said.
"The meetings have not been with only Andhra Pradesh CM but with the CM and Deputy CM of other states. A few of the state governments are taking an active interest in energy efficiency, and we'll soon be able to announce our plans," the CEO said on his meetings with the various state governments.
When asked about the international plans of the company, he said, “Yes, we are working with some countries on energy efficiency and electric mobility but we'll be able to tell you once this gets finalised.”
On the role of EESL in various government schemes he said, PM E- E-DRIVE, PM e-bus seva and PSM scheme are electric mobility funds. We are the chosen entity for the electric buses. "I think it's actually a measure of foresight of the government in trying to accelerate the efforts towards electric mobility, especially in public transportation, because the investment, performance and the technology risk has been shifted to the market participants, rather than the state government entities."
He added that in PM Surya Ghar- Muft Bijli Yojana we are looking at how to give availability of solar panels and inverters to the market participants, specifically the ones that are targeting the bottom of the pyramid. "We are not going to install the solar rooftops in people's homes, because we believe that the market today and the market participants are good enough to do the last client work. What we are trying to do is to reduce the prices and give them the option of buying that from EESL and doing the installation work on their own," he said.
On the government's push for indigenisation in the EV sector the CEO said, “The faster adoption is already happening with the way PLI scheme and phased manufacturing program (PMP) guidelines is working.” He added that whatever we are seeing today, is arising out of those incentives for manufacturers to produce indigenously electric vehicles starting from two-wheelers to electric buses.
