Sun powers many Tamil Nadu schools

    Sometime next month, S Muthukrishnan, the principal of Sri Vidhya Academy, will replace his street lights with six solar lamps. “It may be a substantial initial investment but it is worth it. Anyway we end up paying a lot to run our generator whenever there is a power cut. We have a 20 acre campus with plenty of sunlight. So why should we waste it?” he says. 

    In Coimbatore, the Monarch International School uses solar power to electrify its fence as well as for its water heaters. “We found that our electricity bill was just too high and we were looking for alternate sources of electricity whenever there was a power cut. So we opted for solar power,” says Babita Sharma, principal of Monarch. “Of course, the initial investment was high but now we’re seeing the value in it.” She adds that the solar equipment in the school has also ended up forming a practical component of the science studies in school. “When we teach them about solar energy, we have a working example right in front of us,” she says. 

    At Sri Vidhya Academy too, solar power has become a part of the science syllabus. “We recently bought a solar-powered radio for the school, which we use in our science classes. By the next academic year, solar lamps will also be used,” says Muthukrishnan. 

    Although schools in Tamil Nadu are just discovering solar energy, with colleges it’s a different story. According to KE Ragunaathan, managing director of Solkar Solar Industry Limited, one of the oldest solar companies in the country, the PSG Group of Educational Institutions has spent around Rs 1.5 crore on its solar systems, which also set up hot water systems at Vel Tech engineering College in Avadi. “A solar hot water system can cost from anywhere between Rs one lakh and Rs five lakh for an institution, depending on the number of students. However, for a solar heating system, the payback time is less than two years, while for a lighting system it is around five years,” says Ragunaathan. 

    Other avenues too are being explored in educational institutes. “Wind and hydropower is impractical for schools and colleges but biogas is not and we have found that a number of colleges are opting for it,” says Muralidharan PR, deputy general manager, bioenergy, for the government of Tamil Nadu. “IIT Madras uses biogas for heating water, but I would say the best example would be Kongu Engineering College in Erode. They do not have a septic tank in the college. All the waste generated by the toilets and the kitchen is used to generate energy.” 

Nature is energy-saver for this cos (Grundfos)

    The lights at Grundfos Pumps in Thoraipakkam don’t come on till 4.30 pm. This isn’t to say the office doesn’t function before this time or that the employees work in the dark. For they get all their light from the windows, designed to bring in 95% of the sunlight while absorbing the heat and thereby saving them energy. However, they aren’t the only ones. Many companies in the city are making an effort to reduce their energy consumption.

    C N Raghavendran, chairman of the Indian Green Building Council, Chennai Chapter and one of the partners of CRN Architects & Engineers, that designs green buildings, says most industries try to save energy on appliances they use the most, like compressors and air conditioning.

    Wipro Technologies that has all its branches operating out of Green Buildings use energy efficient dimmable ballast light fixtures and a chilled beam air conditioning system that chills the outside air to the indoor temperature by putting the air through chilling beams. “We also use variable frequency drives for all our operations which reduces the speed of the machine according to the load. Overall, our power consumption is reduced by 25 to 30%,” adds Niranjan Kumar, head of infrastructure in the company. 

    Ajit Kumar Chordia, managing director of Khivraj Tech Park and one of the promoters for Olympia Tech Park, has gone in for water coolers that use cool recycled water to reduce the temperature of the outside air. Grundfos Pumps thinks reducing energy bills is a good way to prepare for the future when there could be a dual tariff system. “We use a pump that is run by solar panels and also use chillers that make ice at night and use the melted ice to cool the air in the morning and therefore reduces consumption by more than 25%,” says R Rangarajan, head of service and training. 

    This energy saving technology doesn’t come easy on the pocket. But that doesn’t stop these companies who feel the returns are faster. 

Power Saved is Power Generated

    It’s a modest, three-storey structure at Guindy in Chennai, pretty unassuming, with a board outside that says ‘Tamil Nadu Electricity Inspectorate’. So why is it at the heart of an ambitious initiative aimed at rescuing the state from a growing energy crisis? 

    The answer lies in the arithmetic of supply and consumption. Tamil Nadu produces roughly 7,000 MW, but demand is in the range of 8,000 MW. The shortfall on any given day varies between 750 MW and 1,000 MW and the administration is currently focussed on speeding up projects that will add more supply, albeit at considerable cost to the exchequer and environment. A nuclear power project at Kudankulam (which throws up questions about handling toxic waste) and coal-fired plants in north Chennai (spewing tonnes of carbon emissions) are among the ones being fasttracked. It seems like a difficult tradeoff between our immediate needs and the potential impact of our profligate ways. But there is another option, a much less explored one, and that’s where the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) at Guindy comes in. 

    BEE, a statutory body under the Union power ministry, has been studying usage patterns since 2001 when the Energy Conservation Act was passed, and is engaged in formulating a strategy aimed at encouraging efficient use of power by domestic and commercial users. 

    Oh yes, you already know that. Turn off the water heater, keep the AC’s thermostat at 24 degrees, use fluorescent lights...blah, blah, blah. Well, guess what? All those little gestures that you have been constantly reminded about add up to a whole lot of units saved. In fact, BEE officials say that if industries and domestic consumers across the state make an effort to use electricity efficiently, at least 1,800 MW of power can be saved every month. For a region facing a deficit of 750-1,000 MW, that would be enough to bridge the gap and carry a surplus for the next two years. What’s stopping us then? 

    To start with, policy initiatives fail to reward judicious use of power or urge users to migrate to energy-friendly technologies. A Tamil Nadu Electricity Board official says obsolete technology, low capacity utilisation and illmaintained machinery are the reasons why industry consumes about 45% of power generated, making it the largest consumer. 

    But BEE is now in the process of identifying the biggest guzzlers. “According to our survey, there are 54 such industrial organisations in Tamil Nadu,” says the TNEB official. Once all the industries are identified and their consumption and billing patterns reviewed, they would be given deadlines to reduce consumption. 

    The only hitch though is that industry has little incentive to upgrade to expensive technologies that consume less power. Unlike the West where industries enjoy tax breaks if they migrate to a more energy-friendly process, the government here does not dangle any carrots. The same principle goes for domestic users — Chennaiites running ACs at full blast in their homes enjoy the same tariff as a farmer in Dindigul waiting for the power to bring his pump back to life so he can water the fields. Neither is conservation rewarded nor waste punished. 

    However, there is some hope now. According to a TNEB official, industries that do not have the monetary capacity to invest in energy-saving devices will soon be aided by BEE through Energy Service Companies (ESCOs). ESCOs will install energysaving equipment for the client and recover the cost from the savings made by the client. Companies investing in such devices would thus save on energy bills, thereby cutting back on expenditure

An AC chiller that makes ice at night and uses the melted ice to cool the air in the morning, reducing consumption by 25%

Solar panels that power pumps used to chill water. This cool water is used by the air-conditioning system

Specially-designed windows at the factory absorb the heat and thereby save energy

 Light enters the Grundfos Pumps office in Thoraipakkam through windows designed to bring in 95% of the sunlight