Energetica India Magazine May-June 2021

SP Garnaik Executive Director and Business Unit Head (Lighting), EESL Public-private partnerships have considerable potential in making India more sustainable and energy ef- ficient. Models such as Build – Own – Operate – Transfer (BOOT) and Pay – As – You – Save (PAYS), ESCOs, Energy Performance Contracting among others help bring down steep upfront costs and make adoption of energy efficiency cost-effective and affordable. Therefore, what we need now is swift implementation and in - creased adoption of eco-friendly and energy-efficient alternatives and increased collaboration in the sector, to roll out targeted and impactful initiatives. PPP Model is not only needed for the implementation of EE proj - ects, but also for Research & Development (R&D), Financing and manufacturing of eco-friendly EE products. On World Environment Day, Manu Tayal , Associate Editor, Energetica India, interacted with SP Garnaik , Exec - utive Director and Business Unit Head (Lighting), Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) – a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power and is the world’s largest public Energy Service Company (ESCO). Here’re some edited excerpts from that exclusive interaction: 20 energetica INDIA- May-June_2021 EESL has recently partnered with ISHARE. How do you see these de- velopments in the backdrop of World Environment Day? SP Garnaik : India is set to witness the world’s fastest growing cooling demand and consequently, its air conditioning market is primed to rapidly expand in the next five years. The current aggre - gated nationwide growth for cooling is expected to grow 2.2 to 3 times, just in the next decade, over the 2017 base - line. This demand will rise steeply, particu - larly in urban areas, due to the underly - ing need for a solution to the problem of heat stress. Rising temperatures, popu - lation growth and urbanization will only push up the demand. While this soaring demand for space cooling is a critical developmental and social imperative, it also represents one of the largest end- use risks to climate. EESL has attempted to address the energy efficiency in Cooling in recent years by implementing few innovative programs and also has set some am- bitious goals to further intervene in this area. Marking World Environment Day, ISHARE being a technical think-tank, this partnership with ISHRAE gains greater importance, as we collabora - tively explore energy efficiency, clean energy, and other ancillary service av - enues in the HVAC&R domain. Is energy efficiency - a viable avenue for the restoration of our environ- ment? SP Garnaik : Energy efficiency has been one of the most potent tools in the global fight against climate change and ecosystem degradation. Accord - ing to the IEA, energy efficiency can contribute up to 49% of the energy re - lated CO2 emission reductions that are needed to limit the rise in global tem - perature in the coming decades. The industrial sector too has benefitted from the adoption of energy efficiency prac - tices. Improving the energy efficiency at energy end-users through improved technology or practice would eventual - ly reduce the fossil fuel consumption at the generation/supply side resulting in CO2 emission reduction. For example, EESL’s Street Light National Program (SLNP) which uses LED technology for municipality lightings has resulted in an annual saving of around 8 billion units of electricity and emission reduction of 5.6 million tons of CO2 to the environ - ment. No doubt, Energy Efficiency is ex - tremely important for all our economic sectors. INTERVIEW