Other States - Orissa   

Summer gives shivers to top bosses

BHUBANESWAR: With the summer advancing steadily, fans and air-conditioning appliances are bound to be operated in full speed in government offices, sometimes unnecessarily.

But when the electricity consumption is billed, it often makes top bosses sweat.

Sample this, total electricity consumed in State Secretariat during February was 1, 04,120 units while the electricity dues was estimated at Rs. 4.92 lakhs. But the consumption gets doubled in summer. In June last year, employees of Secretariat consumed 2, 16,600 units electricity costing Rs. 9.46 lakh to exchequer.

The other big payers in the category are Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of India. Going by the past estimation, these two banks would not pay less than Rs. 5 lakh in the peak summer. Orissa Legislative Assembly, heads of department building and Capital Hospital will too go past the Rs. 4 lakh mark in payment of electricity dues.

Can the hefty electricity bills be made rational? The answer will be in affirmative. Energy auditors claim amount of electricity bill can be reduced by 30 per cent by bringing in certain changes in employees’ behaviour and replacement of old electrical parts.

The Orissa Mining Corporation, a State-run public sector unit, has been saving Rs. 6 crore per annum by throwing its electricity consumption pattern to be scrutinised by National Productivity Council (NPC), an autonomous consultancy group under the Union Ministry of Industries and Commerce.

As per the auditing conducted in Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) by NPC, energy could be saved in the region of 35 per cent of total consumption.

“We have estimated that if the public sector company invests Rs. 64.98 lakh on innovating switching system for street lights, phase wise replacement of high electricity consuming bulbs and voltage control, it could save Rs. 34.87 lakhs per year,” Ramakrushna Padhy, NPC Deputy Director, said.

Compared to other States energy auditing had not penetrated much in Orissa, Mr. Padhy said adding that only forward looking organisations were making progress while most of the Government buildings were left untouched.

The State Government seems to be slowly waking up to the situation.

“A budgetary allocation of Rs. 75 lakh has been made in the budget for capacity building of officers. We are also going in for massive awareness campaign on conserve energy,” said Jagadish Prasad Sharma, principal chief electrical inspector of the State.

The energy audit division is also contemplating to work on a government building for energy conservation model. “We are trying to take up projects for Governor’s House and Capital Hospital to bring down electricity consumption.

While Capital Hospital will be open for public to see how little efforts could make huge difference, Governors’ House will be considered prestigious project,” Aswini Kumar Das, Executive Engineer (projects) said.

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