The Hindu Business Line : `Energy efficiency vital for competitiveness'

SPEAKERS at a one-day training programme on energy management have urged the industry to focus on energy efficiency to remain competitive in the market.

Whether business is commercial, industrial or institutional, energy is part of value chain and managing it strengthens bottom line. Whether managing a small office or a sprawling industrial complex, business leaders today are increasingly concerned about the cost of energy, the speakers observed while attending the training programme on energy management conducted by CII-Kerala in association with the State Bank of India.

The programme was an exercise to emphasise energy audit to improve upon usage of energy and to bolster the quest for alternative sources of energy as newer and more efficient ways of using and conserving energy.

Energy management has to be a continuous process and the knowledge with regard to it has to be updated from time to time. With such a programme, CII is carrying forward its pioneering work in this area whereby the benefits with its energy audit to the industry has been attributed to the tune of Rs 75 crore, Mr M.K. Koshy, Vice-Chairman, CII-Kerala said.

Mr K.V. Mahidhar, Counsellor, CII Green Business Centre, Hyderabad maintained that benefits of the programme lay in its practical lessons, which can be leveraged by individuals attending the programme and that the success of the case studies can be applied irrespective of the type of the industry.

Mr M. Hanumantha Rao, Deputy General Manager, SBI, Thiruvananthapuram lauded the work of CII in this endeavour to advocate the cause of energy management.

The bank's promotion of the cause of coir clusters in Alappuzha is testimony to its commitment to industry and more particularly SSI's. With the SSI's also evolving, the need for technical upgradation has been felt in the form of Project Uptech , he said.

With costs under scrutiny to stay competitive, energy management is a step ahead in the right direction, he added.

The one-day training programme covered various topics such as Energy Audit Methodology, Energy Efficiency in Pumps, Blowers, Motors, Air Compressor, Refrigeration and Air conditioning.