Energy Efficiency in Industries

India’s industrial sector is an important contributor to the country’s economic growth, and it is set to grow in scale as the government pushes for greater indigenous manufacturing. Under the current ‘Make in India’ program the share of manufacturing as proportion of GDP is expected to increase from 16% to 25% by 2022 and create 100 million additional jobs in industry.

But while industries are a key facet of our country’s economic development, they are also extremely energy intensive. Most industrial processes continue to be powered by traditional fuels and the sector accounts for approximately one-fourth of India’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions . Without efforts at decarbonizing the industrial sector, India will be not be able to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. Emissions from energy-use are a major factor in manufacturing related emissions with ~70% of industrial emissions between 2005-2015 coming from energy-use. Emissions from Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU) make up the remainder of industrial emissions. Reducing the energy intensity of key industrial sectors can result in a drastic decrease in emissions and improvement in air quality.

India has already taken several landmark measures to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector. The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme is a market-based mechanism that allows entities in certain energy intensive sectors to earn energy saving certificates in lieu of energy saving beyond their targets, and trade them to companies that have failed to achieve their targets. The first cycle of the PAT scheme has been responsible for an energy saving of 8.67 mtoe.

Decarbonising our energy intensive industries and introducing more clean energy into their operations can help the country achieve its economic and environmental targets. Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation engages with stakeholders in industry and key industry associations to mainstream energy efficiency and identify low carbon pathways in new infrastructure development. We also work with stakeholders to introduce energy efficient practices in India’s Small and Medium Enterprises sector.