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India to Issue Rules for Trading of Energy Savings Certificates
2010-08-19 09:29:19.141 GMT
By Vandana Gombar
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) -- India will soon
issue regulations mandating energy savings in nine industries
through a perform-achieve-and-trade program that will allow
companies that meet their goals to sell excess certificates.
"The stage is set for issuing the necessary rules," Ajay
Mathur, director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency said
in a phone interview on Aug. 18. The day before, the upper
chamber of Parliament approved legislative amendments required
to get the plan running. The lower house approved it on May 4.
The country's 2008 plan on climate change identified energy
efficiency as one of the eight steps needed to tackle global
warming. The National Mission on Energy Efficiency aims to
encourage savings by introducing tradable energy certificates.
"The target of the mission is to achieve 23 million metric
tons of oil equivalent savings by 2014, which would require an
investment of 740 billion rupees ($15.89 billion)," Mathur
said.
Preparations to open the program on April 1 have already
started, and 714 production plants have been identified across
nine energy-intensive industries that will have to adopt the
targets. These are in the cement, paper, fertilizer, thermal
power, iron and steel businesses.
"These units consume 240 million metric tons of oil
equivalent," he said. "The target is to reach savings of 10 to
12 million metric tons of oil-equivalent every year by the end
of three years."
By December, officials will set the baseline for measuring
targets and energy savings for each facility. A decision on the
best way to seed the market with certificates would also be made
then.
"Consultations are still on to decide what would be the
best route" to create a market, whether to auction the
certificates or to allot them to companies under a program
called "grandfathering," Mathur said.
The program may also allow swapping with renewable energy
certificates, which are set to begin working in September to
boost clean energy use in the country. "We recognize the
possible frangibility of these two, but both of these are just
starting," Mathur said. "We will wait for now."
For Related News and Information:
Renewable-energy markets: RENE <GO>
Top renewable-energy news: GREEN <GO>
Most-read alternative energy stories: MNI ALTNRG <GO>
New Energy Finance top news: TNEF <GO>
Renewable energy, environment page: GREEN <GO>
--Editors: Baldave Singh, Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter responsible for this story:
Vandana Gombar in New Delhi at +91-11-4179-2038 or
vgombar@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Angus McCrone in London at +44-20-3216-4795 or
amccrone1@bloomberg.net
