Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Energy centre waits for kick-start

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A proposal to set up a Centre for Excellence in New and Renewable Energy and Conservation and a residential model polytechnic, mainly for SC/ST students, has been left in limbo due to lack of inter-departmental coordination and bureaucratic laxity.

With a total outlay of Rs.30 crore, the project was to be set up at Kuzhalmannam in Palakkad.

The centre was to proactively work with local self-government institutions mainly in the realms of decentralised power generation. This was projected to offer practical solutions to crisis in power sector.

It was proposed to set up five laboratories, for taking up research and development initiatives in lighting, solar, biomass, small and hydro energy conservation, in association with premier academic institutions like Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Petroleum Conservation Research Association and Bureau of Energy Efficiency and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Residential polytechnic

A model residential polytechnic with regular and short-term courses where 60 per cent seats was to be reserved for SC/ST students was also part of the project. The academic programme of the polytechnic was to be outsourced to the Institute of Human Resource Development, which has already instituted seven model polytechnics and a model engineering college.

The centre for excellence was one of the main programmes of the Total Energy Security Mission (TESM). It was expected to re-orient the research and implementation programmes of the Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT). The centre was also to run training programmes to meet the requirements of government agencies like the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and generate externally-funded projects.

ANERT has already initiated steps for launching local-level energy kiosks which will serve as entrepreneur units for distributing renewable energy devices and systems. Extensive demand side management activities were also initiated with the help of Tourism and Health Departments and the civic bodies. This baseline data was expected to help the centre take up consultancy services that would earn substantial resources in future. The resources thus mobilised were expected to make it self-sufficient in five years.

By 2012

Official sources told The Hindu here that after the preliminary steps precious little had been done for completing the project within a specific timeframe. The project was to be completed in two phases by 2012.

The first phase, comprising the polytechnic, was scheduled to be completed by this month-end, but it would not materialise in the near future, sources said.

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