India's power minister launches energy efficiency scheme

India's Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has rolled out a scheme to improve energy efficiency by 2015 of certain sectors including  thermal power plants.

Implementation of the first cycle of the Perform, Achieve and Trade or PAT scheme is expected to help save energy to the tune of approximately 6.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent by the end of 2014-15.

The government notified the targets under the Energy Conservation Act 2001 for 478 industrial units and thermal power stations on March 30, 2012.

The PAT scheme provides the option to trade any additional certified energy savings with other designated consumers to comply with the Specific Energy Consumption reduction targets. The Energy Savings Certificates so issued will be tradable on special trading platforms to be created in the two power exchanges -- Indian Energy Exchange and Power Exchange India.

“PAT would become a valuable model for other countries to adopt for their own energy efficiency programmes with a business perspective," said Shinde. "It is expected to bring a transformational change in energy efficiency through energy intensive industries,” the minister added.