Meet stresses on energy conservation

VADODARA, Dec 14: Stating that energy conservation is equally important as generating more electricity to meet the growing demand, Gujara...

VADODARA, Dec 14: Stating that energy conservation is equally important as generating more electricity to meet the growing demand, Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) Chairman Nalin Bhatt has hinted that energy saving would be developed as a process in the Board.

He was inaugurating a seminar organised by the GEB here at the Federation Building on Energy Conservation Day.

While appreciating various programmes organised to commemorate the day, Bhatt observed that it was unfortunate that issues about energy conservation were discussed on just one particular day and then forgotten. He called upon consumers to be more aware so that they could save more electricity.

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Delivering the inaugural address, vice-president of Federation of Gujarat Industries, Amit Goradia underlined the need to conserve energy to bring down the production cost of industries. He said if professional approach was adopted in energy conservation it would go a long way in bringing down the production cost. Modernisation and technological upgradation were essential for energy conservation, he added.

Goradia specified that conserving energy did not mean just bringing down production but also increasing the production capacity in a way that the per unit energy consumption came to minimum.

Delivering the key-note address, managing director of Devki R & D Engineers Dr B G Desai, suggested that the GEB should impart training to its technical staff for energy conservation, introduce energy audit in power stations and increase the peak time tariff. He said effective management tactics could help in energy conservation.

Addressing the gathering, GEB’s Additional Chief Engineer S B Lele pointed out that much remained to be done in the field of energy conservation. This, he said, was on the basis of a survey carried out between Umargam and Anjar. He claimed that the GEB was the only electricity board in the country which had a separate department for energy conservation.

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Lele said the board had made changes in 40,000 pumps used for irrigation and repaired a few water pumps at its own expense as part of conservation.According to figures brought out by the Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA), about 20 per cent electrical energy and 30 per cent thermal energy in the cement industries can be saved. Similarly, in the field of textile industry, thermal energy can be saved up to 40 per cent and electrical energy up to 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, Kirti Merchant of Pratap High School bagged the first prize and Jignesh Thakore of M V High School, Jarod won the second prize in a poster competition organised by the GEB on `Energy Conservation’.

While Taruna Patel of Pratap High School and Ankit Shah of Sardar Vallabhbhai Vidyalaya bagged first and second prizes for their drawings on `Power Theft and Remedy Measures’, in the secondary section, Prahit Shah of Ambe Vidyalaya received a special prize in the primary section.

A total 36 entries were judged by Subhash Lele, Bhaskar Rawal, Dr Dipti Pandya, Dr Nikhil Desai and Jayesh Thakkar.