The Hindu Business Line : Time to save energy

Come summer and we have the ritual of power cuts across the country, and the usual babel of ideas on how to overcome or alleviate the shortage. Most of these ideas are hardly novel; take, for instance, last week's suggestion from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy that the Government examine the creation of two time zones for the country or the staggering of office and school timings so as to make better use of daylight. This idea has made the rounds for over two decades without ever really stirring up much interest. It may make no more headway this time too though the argument is plain for all to see. With the country more than 2,000 km wide, the sun rises in the north-eastern States an hour and a half before it does in western Gujarat. Setting a unique time for the country with Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh as the reference longitude does wonders for unified working, but does not let people make the most of the sun's light, with offices in the North-East functioning into the twilight. Considerable lighting energy may be saved if they could finish work before sunset, it is argued. Studies in the United States have shown that a switch to daylight saving time in summer — when days are long — brings a one per cent saving in electricity.

Lighting does consume a large quantum of electricity, and surely any attempt to reduce the need for it must be commended. The twin time zone plan, however, may not be one of them simply because of the enormous confusion it will engender especially for those who travel. Yet if offices and schools in the eastern part of the country can simply start an hour earlier and not let work linger into dusk, lighting energy can doubtless be saved. The virtue of this exercise is that it can be wrought without resetting the clock, but would people not need to switch on the lights when they get home? The net effect the exercise will have on the national electricity meter cannot be gauged with certainty.

A more certain saving can be won by getting people to replace their incandescent bulb with the compact fluorescent lamp. Though pricier than the incandescent bulb, the CFL lasts longer, consumes a fraction of the energy, and saves money for the user over its life span. Yet only a few consumers have been persuaded to switch and barely one in ten light sources manufactured in India is a CFL. If all lights are changed to CFL, the lighting load could drop by about 12,000 MW, says an estimate by Greenpeace that is campaigning now for a ban on the manufacture of the incandescent bulb. If its energy assessment is right, the switch to CFL carries the potential of just about eliminating the 14,000 MW peak hour electricity shortage the national grid faces this summer. The time may, therefore, be just right for the drastic switch.