By IANS
New Delhi : The sprawling Rashtrapati Bhavan and the official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have cut their energy consumption by nearly 25 percent by switching over to better technologies.
“While Rashtrapati Bhavan has cut down its energy needs by nearly 40 percent, the prime minister’s residence has reduced the same by 23 percent,” said Ajay Mathur, director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
“We conducted a survey and gauged the possibility of reducing the consumption of electricity. Through a bidding process, the work was given to a company which facilitated this conservation,” Mathur said Tuesday in a renewable energy symposium here.
He said the bulbs used were changed, the air-conditioned technology was modified and a number of innovative technologies were adopted to achieve this step.
“Transport Bhavan, Sanchar Bhavan (the office of a state owned telecom company) and Shakti Sadan, headquarter of Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) are also doing a great job to conserve electricity,” Mathur told IANS.
DTL, the government owned power-distributing body in the Indian capital is using 30 percent less energy than what it was consuming some months back.
He said now the work has been taken over by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and they are taking one government building after another to make them energy efficient.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said at the function, held at The Maurya hotel, that the capital’s energy demand was increasing by nine percent every year.
“This growth in energy demand is unsustainable. We all need to work collectively and try our best to use solar energy. We are also planning to change the technology of street lighting before the 2010 Commonwealth Games,” Dikshit said.
Delhi Power secretary Rakesh Mehta said hospitals, big hotels and restaurants have been directed to switch over to energy efficient modes.
“At least 72 important buildings have been asked to consume less energy. They should use solar energy for the purpose,” he said.
Mehta said if people start using more and more solar energy and shift to CFL bulbs then power upto 500 MW could be saved.