More than 400 large industries from key energy-intensive sectors in India have made exemplary efforts towards improving energy-efficiency in the past three years. Systematic efforts to adopt energy conservation measures by these industries coupled with technology upgradation have resulted in energy savings worth Rs 95 billion annually. These achievements were reported by the Ministry of Power, based on an impact analysis report for Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT), the flagship scheme under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) implemented by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). The main sector whose energy savings was evaluated comprises thermal power plant, fertiliser, chlor alkali, aluminium, iron and steel, pulp and paper, textile and cement industries. 400 industry representatives have partnered with the government under this ambitious scheme to aggressively promote energy-efficiency in the sector, which consumes over 50 per cent of the country's total primary energy consumption. The various industries have adopted state-of-the-art technologies such as waste heat recovery, top recovery turbine, coke dry quenching and compressor optimisation to improve their specific energy consumption.

Minister of Power RK Singh also released the outcome report for the study conducted by BEE, which demonstrated energy savings of 8.67 million tonne of oil equivalent (MTOE) against a target of 6.686 mtoe, which is 30 per cent more than the targetted energy saving. The assessment and verification process was conducted by BEE through an online framework with the assistance of Accredited Energy Auditors. The outcome of the scheme also resulted in energy saving of more than Rs 95 billion, investment by industry of about Rs 260 billion, and capacity building of over 5,000 engineers and operators.

Speaking on this occasion, Singh said, 'Achievement of 30 per cent additional saving endorses partnership and commitment by the industry in this important endeavour of the government, which not only leads to energy saving but results in reduction of GHG emission to the tune of 31 million tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent annually." The PAT scheme is mandatory for all designated consumers notified by BEE and is one of the major initiatives under NMEEE. It is a market-based mechanism to reduce specific energy consumption in the energy-intensive sector. If industries fail to achieve their target in energy savings, they will have to compensate by energy-saving certificates (ESCerts).