The plan mooted under the National Action Plan on Climate Change has been given final shape and will soon regulate the energy guzzled by railways, aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali, pulp and paper, fertilisers and steel industries. It will also cover power generation plants.

The plan will cover around 750 large industrial installations across the nine sectors. Only those plants which consume more than specified levels of energy annually will be targeted.

Industrial plants will be expected to achieve targets assigned to them within a 3-year period starting from the time the scheme is launched. The target for each plant will be based on the average specific energy consumption over the financial years 2005-2008.

The target will be set as a percentage of this average. The plants which are presently less energy-efficient will have to attain a higher percentage of improvement than the better performers.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has already started baseline studies for all these sectors and the work will be completed by 2009-end. The targets for all the sectors will be ready by March 2010.

In case of thermal power plants, the targets will be set by the Central Electricity Authority to ensure alignment of tariff-setting with the energy-efficiency goals. In case of fertiliser plants, the department of fertilisers will do the job.

Source: Times Of India Govt plans to regulate energy use in 9 sectors