The Hindu Business Line : Tea Board launches energy conservation project

Coonoor, March 8 “Tea industry should take necessary steps to contain its production cost to gain global competency. Energy being a major cost factor, the industry should focus on conservation measures to make it more cost-beneficial,” said Mr Basudeb Banerjee, Tea Board Chairman, launching a project on energy conservation in South Indian tea industry here.

In the global market, countries such as Viet Nam Vietnam and Indonesia are posing tough competition with low-cost supplies. To survive the threat of Sri Lanka and Kenya, Indian industry should gain competency through lower production cost, he said

“Improved productivity on labour and material have been tried. But, energy saving is the need of the hour. Individual units have succeeded in this. Even Tocklai Tea Research Association has attempted action,” he said.

Mr Banerjee said the project launched in the South would serve as a learning experience for the industry as a whole. “Everyone is agreed that energy has to be saved. It is only the saveable form of energy which differs from place to place. Our idea is to make energy conservation a holistic project for the Indian tea industry,” he said.

The Tea Board Executive Director, Mr R.D. Nazeem, saidenergy conservation was required to protect environment, apart from gaining competence in world market.

“Energy audits show that it is possible to save at least 20 per cent of thermal and electrical energy in tea factories by using energy efficiency equipments and adopting suitable operating practices. The Tea Board will give 25 per cent subsidy for CTC factories and 40 per cent for orthodox for bringing in new technology for saving energy. We will enlist the support of bankers for finance to the factories,” he said.

A project steering committee with the Tea Board Chairman as the Chairman and Tea Board Executive Director (Coonoor) as leader has been formed. “We will take suggestions from all quarters to devise workable machinery,” Mr Nazeem said.

The project has been launched with three partners – UNDP, Global Environment Facility and Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE). Dr Preeti Soni, Head of Energy and Environment Unit, UNDP, said that the project would run for four years. Ms Svati Bhogle, TIDE Secretary, said the experience gained in running similar projects in other industries would be dovetailed for tea project.

Mr Ashwini Kumar, TIDE Project Manager, explained the components of the new project. He said that awareness creation, elimination of financial burden, adoption of energy saving equipments and learning/knowledge sharing would be the crux. “If 30 tea factories go for this, there would be a cumulative saving of 56,925 tonnes of carbon di-oxide released in the atmosphere,” he said.

Mr G. Ramamurthy, Agri Engineer, UPASI KVK, spoke on “Opportunities for energy efficiency interventions in tea factories”.

The Upasi President, Mr D.P. Maheshwari, assured the support of plantations for making the project successful. He said that several attempts have been done and the time has come for a holistic approach on energy management.

Mr M. Bhojarajan, former Vice-Chairman, Tea Board, said the small-scale sector has been reeling under a crisis for the last six years and any measure that helps to reduce cost and increase profit was welcome.