OREANDA-NEWS. June 8, 2012. Tata Power has been at the forefront of propagating energy conservation and efficiency in the country. The company has once again launched several attractive DSM schemes for its customers in Mumbai under its special initiative, ‘My Mumbai Green Mumbai’, introduced last summer.

The following DSM schemes are currently active for its Mumbai customers and are approved by MERC:

Residential customers

The company has launched a ‘ceiling fan exchange’ programme by joining hands with Havells India for BEE 5-star rated energy efficient ceiling fans. These 5-star ceiling fans are offered only at Rs924, which amounts to a 50-percent discount on market price, and the fans consume only 50 Watts of energy, which is 30 percent less than the conventional fan. Phase 1 of this programme was closed successfully last summer and Phase 2 has been launched.

Tata Power is also coming out with a new programme of 5-star refrigerators for residential customers. Under this scheme, the company aims to offer most efficient refrigerators at a good discount so that the customers would be able to replace their old energy-guzzling refrigerators.

All DSM programmes for this category of customers are programmes which provide energy-efficient electrical appliances to participant consumers at a subsidised rate. The company has tied up with major consumer appliance manufacturers to provide these appliances at a very heavy discount over the current market rates. Moreover, a portion of the cost is also borne by Tata Power. Tata Power had implemented pilot programmes for T5 tube lights and 5-star air conditioners in 2011, which are closed now and would be opened after MERC’s approval.

Industrial and commercial customers

Since industrial and commercial customers have high consumption, a wide range of DSM programmes have been designed for them. These programmes are a mix of both — schemes where the consumer is provided solutions at a discounted price and schemes where they are incentivised for participation. Current programmes being conducted by the company are as follows;

Energy audits: Under this programme, the customer’s premises are audited by a certified energy audit agency and recommendations are provided by this agency for achieving further reduction in energy consumption. The consumer pays only 25 percent of the fees, while the remaining is borne by Tata Power. Tata Power has so far carried out these audits for over 45 consumers and cumulatively provided recommendations for reduction of over 12 million units. The audit, conducted by professional and specialist energy auditors accredited by BEE, enables consumers to undertake a studied approach towards energy saving by mapping their unique power consumption pattern and identifying several opportunities to save energy.

Thermal storage technology for air conditioners: This technology has been introduced for industrial / commercial customers having large central air conditioning systems. The chillers are run in night hours to convert water to ice and in daytime the energy stored in ice is used to cool the premises. The advantages of using this system are:

Since the chiller plant is run in the night, the customers pay for night tariffs which are lower than day tariffs.

The maximum demand is not charged in the night; hence the customer gets the opportunity to shift his demand to offpeak and also saves on demand charges.

As the chillers run in the night when the ambient temperature is low, the customer gets better efficiency, and with proper planning, the AC systems can be optimised using the thermal storage plant.

Tata Power has enrolled a capacity of 10,000 TR hours under this programme and is incentivising the customers who shift their peak loads using thermal storage technology.

Demand response: Although demand response is typically carried out in a widespread manner in developed countries, Tata Power is the first utility in India to carry out this programme. Utilities the world over typically carry out these programmes to ward off high cost of external power purchase, in case of transmission constraints, emergency conditions arising in the system, etc. Here, the consumer is asked to voluntarily reduce their load at a pre-determined time as required by the utility. Their actions involve changes in temperature settings of AC plants, shifting of work times, staggered switching of lighting supply, shift in pump operations, load curtailment using building management systems, and switching on the standby generation. Incentives are then provided to participating customers based on the quantum of load reduction achieved. Tata Power has already enrolled a capacity of 10MW load under this programme and has carried out several load curtailment events in 2012. Tata Power incentivises such customers by paying them an amount of about Rs2 per unit saved.

The company endeavours to roll out several innovative initiatives which would help customers to save power from time to time under this initiative.

Speaking on this initiative, S Padmanabhan, executive director, operations, Tata Power, said, ‘My Mumbai, Green Mumbai!’ initiative is a successful energy efficiency drive from Tata Power, and we are happy to offer several innovative and attractive DSM schemes for all our customer segments. We are confident that our demand-side efforts will not only help our customers to significantly reduce their monthly bills but enable them to make Mumbai a greener city.”

To implement the above DSM initiatives, Tata Power has carried out extensive load research which involved studying the consumer behaviour, load variation patterns and determining peak load contributors by gathering information on various high energy consuming equipments used by consumers. Based on this load research conducted, Tata Power has designed specific DSM programmes and classified them according to the various consumer categories ie, residential, commercial and industrial.

Future of DSM programmes

DSM programmes are gaining widespread momentum, more so due to their tremendous potential to save energy costs to the consumer. DSM programmes, typically demand response, is an integral part of Snart Grid solutions and thus are being adopted across the world. Tata Power is one of the earliest utilities in India to have embraced DSM programmes in a widespread manner. In addition to the programmes discussed above, Tata Power is in the process of rolling out several new initiatives for the benefit of its customers. Some of these key initiatives being promotion of green buildings, introducing the concept of Negawatt power plant and carrying out Smart Grid projects.