OREANDA-NEWS. December 16, 2015. On the occasion of National Energy Conservation Day, tomorrow ,14th December2015, the Ministry of Power and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will felicitate school students from across the nation for the National Painting Competition and will also felicitate companies who have been the best energy performer in various sectors. Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy Shri Piyush Goyal, will inaugurate the National Energy Conservation Day and facilitate the winners.

Awards will also be presented to industries, commercial buildings, railways, establishments Financial Institutions, ESCOs and DISCOMs to recognise their efforts towards adoption of energy efficient technologies and practices in their units.

This year more than 1.00 Crore students from schools all over the country participated in the school painting competition, which is 66% higher than the last year‘s participation of 60.00 lakhs. Shri Piyush Goyal will view the paintings of the children who participated in the national level painting competition.

Shri Goyal will also interact with the school students from different states through video conferencing and take inspiring ideas from them on how to conserve energy in an effective way. Through video conferencing he will also highlight few tips on energy savings for homes and schools and will take commitment from the students to ensure that they help in conserving energy at home and school.

In addition to the painting competition prize, Shri Piyush Goyal will also present 2 Top rank award of Excellence, 41 units for first prizes, and 42 units for second prizes to the National Energy Conservation Award winners who are the best energy performers in different sectors.

The participating units of 2015 Awards programme have collectively invested Rs. 2384 Crores in energy conservation measures and achieved an annual monetary savings of Rs. 2928 Crores, implying a short payback period of 11 Months only; once again proving the fact that Energy Conservation is a least cost option when compared to all energy supply options. The participating units have also saved 2598 Million kWh of electrical energy, which is equivalent to the energy generated from a 423 MW Thermal Power Station.

On this occasion, The Minister will also launch the Mobile App for Star Labelled Appliances. The Mobile application will allow consumers to instantly compare personalized energy savings across all products of a specific class and thus enable them to choose more efficient products available in the market.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has been entrusted to take lead on all energy efficient activities ranging from appliances, buildings to energy intensive industries and Demand Side Management (DSM) programmes for DISCOMs, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and agriculture. These initiatives are also an integral part of the action plans of the government for providing ”Power for all” whereby each household will have access to quality and reliable electricity round the clock.

India has recently communicated its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to United Nations Framework For Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and declared that the nation aims for pursuing a climate friendly and cleaner path of economic development and thereby intends to reduce the emission intensity of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level.