The biggest issue contributing to the energy crisis in the country is not insufficient generation of energy but large amounts of wastage involved in transmission and usage, according to the panel of experts at an energy conservation conference held in the city on Monday.
The ‘Economic Lecture on Central and State Government schemes on Energy Conference’ organised by TANSTIA-FNF addressed the larger issues involved with the high amounts of energy wastage that inefficient equipment caused in the country. S Appavoo, Chief Electrical Inspector to the Government of Tamil Nadu and R Rangarajan, Director Services and Training, Grundfos Pumps Pvt Ltd, were unanimous in the declaring that wastage from inefficient electrical equipment and transmission lines were on par with the shortage in power confronting the nation.
K Gopalakrishnan, president of TANSTIA, pointed out in is opening remarks that while some people blamed thee government for giving free power to certain sectors like agriculture, that wasn’t the problem. “Free power is not the problem. Power wastage is the critical issue here. Almost every pump operating in the agricultural sector is very inefficient. This problem is one that begins with the least cost policy that utility managers and the government practice right now. But, the cost of power wasted due to the lack of quality that is caused due to this policy is much more than the cost of investing in the most energy efficient equipment,” he declared. Appavoo agreed and went on to say that if transmission losses, which in Indian stand at 40-48 per cent as against the world standard of eight per cent, could be rectified and end user wastage reduced by just 10-20 per cent in the domestic segment the current shortage would be more than mitigated. The conference was also attended by A Selvaraj, Chairman of TANSTIA-FNF Service Centre and P Lakshminarayanan, CEO, TFSC.