New Delhi, NFAPost: Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a JV under Ministry of Power has joined hands with Ministry of MSME, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to implement a national project in India titled “Promoting Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency in Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME)”.
The project aims to deploy 35 energy efficient technologies which have maximum possibility of replication and potential to improve the energy productivity of fellow MSMEs units. The project also aims to adopt various business models of ESCO (Energy Servicing Company) where the MSME unit is expected to pay-back to the investor from the monetized energy savings in a period of time.
In order to facilitate information dissemination on the project to the MSME industries, a technology exhibition cum workshop was held on Saturday, November 20th, 2021 at Hotel Niharika, Kolkata. The workshop included participants from a large number of MSME units representing the steel re-rolling and foundry sectors.
The workshop was attended by MoMSME Director Vinamra Mishra, UNIDO National Project Coordinator Debajit Das, Girja Shankar, GM (T) and Sanjeev Ranjan from EESL, Steel Re-rolling Mill Association Chairman & Indian Foundry Association Vice-Chairman Vivek Adukia and FCDA Chairman Vijay Shankar Beriwal, among others. EESL has signed MoUs with the industry associations for extending mutual support to meet the project targets. EESL has also signed MoA (Agreement) with 4 MSME units for implementation of technologies.
Commenting on the new initiative, EESL General Manager (Technical) Girja Shankar said under this project, EESL plans to upscale 35 technologies in 12 clusters, including Howrah.
“We are currently implementing the world’s largest portfolio for energy efficiency and industrial energy efficiency is one of our key focus areas,” said Girja Shankar.
Vinamra Mishra, Director MoMSME said “Energy efficiency is unavoidable in today’s scenario for sustainability of industries”. Debojit Das, UNIDO highlighted “The project aims at implementing innovative finance mechanism to push energy efficiency in the cluster.
Steel Re-rolling Mill Association Chairman & Indian Foundry Association Vice-Chairman Vivek Adukia emphasised on the importance of cost savings. “Energy is the key contributor to the production cost and steps must be taken to optimize energy cost to the extent possible,” he added.
Under the project, twelve MSME clusters across India have been identified including Howrah mixed cluster, wherein the identified technologies will be demonstrated. EESL has till date identified 4 technologies applicable for the steel re-rolling and foundry industries located in the clusters. 3 out of the 4 technologies have been successfully demonstrated in the cluster while 1 technology is under implementation.
As a phase II of the project, EESL intends to replicate these technologies to a larger number of industries in the region, thus helping the industries to become energy efficient and cost competitive. EESL has been entrusted as the technical partner and the project management consultant for the region. The project is expected to save around 1 million tCO2 annually with an investment potential of around 150 million USD.
About EESL:
Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the administration of Ministry of Power, Government of India, is working towards mainstreaming energy efficiency and is implementing the world’s largest energy efficiency portfolio in the country. By 2020, EESL seeks to be a $1.5 billion-dollar (Rs 10,000 crore) company putting together all the programmes of EESL.
Thus far, EESL has distributed over 36 crore LED bulbs and retrofitted over 1.22 crore smart LED streetlights across India through self-sustaining commercial models. It has pioneered innovative business approaches to successfully roll-out large-scale programs that allow for incentive alignment across the value chain and rapidly drive transformative impact. EESL aims to leverage this implementation experience and exploit new opportunities in overseas market for diversification of its portfolio. As on date, EESL has begun its operations in UK, South Asia and South-East Asia.
