Kolkata, Aug 28 (IANS): Observing that India might face severe energy crunch in the future, a top official has said serious steps should be taken to ensure end-use energy efficiency.

"We are heading towards a situation where we can face severe net energy deficiency as well as sky-rocketing prices. Serious intervention of the authorities is required to ensure energy efficiency as we are literally on the razor's edge," said Ajay Mathur, director general, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), said here Saturday evening.

Mathur said in the next five years there would be a 50 percent surge of energy consumption in residential and commercial buildings and in the transport sector.

"With the ever increasing demand for energy, we are hitting the wall in production in the conventional energy field," he said.

He said the problem of shortage of energy supply could be tackled by end use energy efficiency.

"On the industry front, it is essential to adopt suitable measures to ensure less energy is consumed. Technological innovations should be applied to get the same amount of produce using less energy. In fact, energy efficiency has been prioritised in all industrial units," he stated.

Mathur also called for fuel efficient trucks. "As road transport is being preferred over rail there is a need for trucks which consume less fuel. The railways should also ensure timely delivery of goods so that more people use the rail services which are energy efficient."

He advocated adoption of the 'energy conservation building code' (ECBC) by the state governments so that buildings are constructed following the code which will result in energy conservation.

"The ECBC provides guidelines as how to construct buildings that are energy efficient. Till now only three of the states have adopted the code. More states need to follow."

He stressed on the use of energy efficient appliances as a bulk of energy was used up by the appliances.

Mathur said if proper end use efficiency was ensured then in the next five years, the equivalent of 30 billion units of electricity and 20 million tonnes of oil could be conserved.