New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS): Proper financial planning by companies' boards and top managements is needed to enhance energy efficiency, officials and experts have said at an interactive meet on the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme.

Ajay Mathur, Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency at the power ministry, said the government has put in place three-pronged policies - regulatory, fiscal, and incentives - to encourage energy efficiency in the country.

Addressing the meet, Mathur pointed out that some of the most efficient technologies were being used by some industries in India, while some industrial units in the same sector were using up to six times the energy used in the efficient units.

This implies that there are both “bad” and “good” parts in every sector, he said.

The event organised recently in Bangalore by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, was supported by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation.

PAT scheme is based on the approach that each industry enhances its own energy efficiency, the first targets being met by 2014-2015, through multiple PAT cycles.

PAT scheme is a market-based mechanism to improve the energy efficiency in large energy intensive industries and facilities cost-effectively by certifying energy savings that could be traded. It applies to eight industrial sectors including, power, aluminium, pulp and paper, cement, iron and steel, textile and fertiliser.

The scheme is based on the approach that each industry enhances its own energy efficiency, the first targets being met by 2014-2015, through multiple PAT cycles.

“The targets are defined in a manner that is both ambitious and doable. It aims at taking energy efficiency from the boiler room discussions by engineers to the boardroom as part of the financial planning,” Dr. Mathur said.

“In order to ensure that energy efficiency plans are neither vague nor overlooked, it is important for industries to understand their technological profiles,” he added.

Two reports, one on “Energy Efficiency of the Iron and Steel Industry” and the other one on “Potential for Deepening the Scope of PAT” were released at the event.

Shashank Jain, programme manager at Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, elaborated on the advantages of energy efficiency, saying it could also help ease the high current account deficit that India is currently facing and also enhance production levels in industries.

He said market size of the energy efficiency and energy production was to the tune of Rs.75,000 crores.

Jain lauded the government’s efforts in this sector towards the creation of an enabling environment through policies and action plans.

He said PAT, an offshoot of these efforts, presents a possibility of decreasing energy consumption by 6-7 million tonnes of oil equivalent and will reduce carbon dioxide emission by a similar magnitude.