CHENNAI: "The State Government is in the process of formulating an energy efficiency policy to be adopted by all departments," said Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Hans Raj Verma here on Wednesday.

Addressing the inaugural session of Energy Summit - 2006, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr. Verma said the Chief Minister was for investing more in latest technologies for improving the energy efficiency in power plants, especially in thermal units. No doubt these units were functioning efficiently, but the Government wanted to improve it further as its focus was energy efficiency. He said the Government was always for a pro-active role to facilitate further development in the energy field.

Asia-Pacific tie-up

James L.Connaughton, chairman of the Council for Environment Quality, U.S., said his country joined Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea to create a new Asia-Pacific partnership on clean development, energy security and climate change. The partnership would build on strong history of common approaches and demonstrated cooperation on clean energy technologies. The six countries were committed to developing and accelerating deployment of cleaner, more efficient energy technologies to reduce pollution in their respective areas, improve energy security and climate change concerns in ways that would reduce poverty and promote economic development, he added.

Focus on energy conservation

CII president R.Seshasayee said energy and environment were global issues, which were intertwined. So the CII had made energy conservation with sustainable development as its focus.

There was a need for providing supporting incentives for energy conservation with sustainable development. Expressing concern over high energy intensity in the country, he said it was much higher when compared to developed countries and early steps were needed to reduce the energy intensity. He was for concrete steps to conserve energy, which however, should not stop from its growth path, he added.

Banmail Agrawala, managing director, Wartsila India, said while the country was spending more on generating energy but little on steps to reduce environmental problems linked to generation.

He said the pricing policy of power should reflect on environment. An agreement was also signed between CII and Lanka Transformers, Sri Lanka, on promoting energy efficiency in Sri Lankan industries and establishments.