Power India found that around 13 power plants of Maharashtra which are supplying power to the state and 30 other industrial units are among the India’s top 478 manufacturing establishment guzzling the major chunk of country’s fuel mainly furnace oil.
Power India further found that, these set-ups have been asked by the union power ministry to reduce their current energy consumption, i.e. oil consumption of 166 million tonne, by 6.6 million tonne by the year 2015.
Normally these industrial setups use oil to generate power in their plants using diesel generators when power is not available. In power plants, oil is used when inferior quality of coal affects generation.
Only plants using more than a specified amount of energy are included in the ministry's list. These plants account for about 1/3rd of the total energy consumed in India, sources said.
Considered a measure to check carbon emissions responsible for global warming and to save precious fuel, this government initiative also imposes penalties on these units if failed to achieve the targets e.g. a Rs-10,154 penalty for missing a 1 tonne oil target. However, there is also an incentive for companies that surpass the energy-efficiency target for 2014-15. For each extra tonne of oil-equivalent saved, the company will get an energy saving certificate, which can then be sold to other companies that fail to meet their targets. The bureau of energy efficiency (BEE) has helped set targets to save precious oil and thus carbon emissions.
Some of the power plants listed for achieving these energy targets are:
Bhusawal, Chandrapur, Khaparkheda, Koradi, Nashik, New Parli, Paras, Parli and Uran of the state, power plants of state government, Trombay power plants of Tata power, and Dahanu generation units of Reliance Infrastructure. Other industrial units in the state which have been asked to achieve oil saving targets include Hindalco, Century, Eurotex, Indo Count, textile mills like Jawahar, Morarjee, P V, Priyadarshini, Raymond, Spentex, Suryalaxmi, and Bombay Dying, BILT Graphic Papers, JSW, Gopani, Sunflag, Ispat, Mukund, Lloyds Metals, RCF, and cement factories like Ultratech, Ambuja, ACC and Manikgarh.
Meanwhile, a source in power sector said several power generating units in the state have to use substandard quality of coal, which is mostly muddy and sticky, and hence there is no option but to use oil to speed up the generation. "Similarly the Industry will not use oil to generate power through diesel or captive generators if a cheaper and efficient power is offered to them 24x7," he said pointing out that such norms would have been more apt if such hurdles had not been there.
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