When the 16th President is sworn in at Rashtrapati Bhavan in July-end, he can feel proud that his residence has under a unique business partnership, succeeded in bringing down energy costs by almost 25 per cent.
The sprawling President Estate’s baseline energy consumption used to be over `70 lakh annually.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) offered to help bring the energy costs of Rashtrapati Bhavan down with no additional cost to the exchequer.
“Our offer was that once the energy service company had helped reduced baseline costs by 23 per cent, they could go on to earn 60 per cent from the savings so ensued,” said Dr Ajay Mathur, director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
The company hired to introduce energy saving measures was Honeywell Automatic Industries which is overseeing this “green” initiative at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Energy efficiency has been introduced largely in the areas of efficient lighting and in the use of star rated air-conditioning systems and has proved effective during the last three years.
Energy audits were also conducted for Parliament House, Parliament Annexe, Supreme Court, North Block, South Block, Krishi Bhavan, Shastri Bhavan, Rail Bhavan, National Archives and several hospitals, including Safdarjung Hospital and RML Hospital, but the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has not been able to convert these into green buildings.
“These buildings are occupied by different ministries but are managed by the PWD. While the occupancy is being done by one group, management and supervision is in the hands of another group,” said Dr Mathur.
Several private companies are following this energy cost-cutting pattern to ensure energy savings. Rashtrapati Bhavan had also introduced rainwater harvesting, waste management and recycling of water.