The Hindu 09.05.2013
Energy audit begins at Coimbatore Corporation office
With the aim of reducing power consumption and the
electricity charges at its main office in Town Hall, the Coimbatore
Corporation has begun energy audit.
According to
sources, the audit, being executed by a group of professionals from
Chennai, will study the equipment installed, energy consumption pattern,
how efficient is the Corporation in using the installed equipment, etc.
The
study is two weeks old, sources in the civic body say and add that the
group is likely to submit its report in a week. Sources privy to the
draft report say that the group has a list of 56 points for the
Corporation to work on. If the Corporation accepts and implements the
proposals in the report it will lead to power conservation between
seven-and-a-half to 20 per cent for it.
In terms of
money, it will lead to substantial savings because the Corporation
spends nearly Rs. 2 lakh on power charges a month.
Points
in the report include better light management, efficient use of
generator, etc. Based on the report, the Corporation is likely to go in
for solar panels to generate electricity to supply to the Tangedco grid
and receive power from the same.
The sources say that
after going through the energy audit, the Corporation will clearly know
the right number of panels it needs to install to generate power. If it
did not go in for the audit, the Corporation would have installed more
panels than necessary. As a follow up to the energy audit, the civic
body is also mulling options to install solar concentrators on
anganwadis and noon-meal centres in Corporation schools. The objective
is to bring down LPG consumption. By installing the concentrators the
civic body will be able to cook food for 60 persons in an hour and
thereby save one-and-a-half to two cylinders a day a centre.