The Power Savers: Call For Energy Conservation

While there is enough talk about how the climate is changing and carbon footprints of developing countries are getting out of control, a bevy of professionals have been driving a revolution without the rhetoric. These professionals, called energy conservation specialists, help various companies cut down their energy consumption, saving them money and conserving one of the nation's most prized resources.

Energy conservation has been developing as a science as well as a profession since the early '70s and is widely believed to have started in the US. As most of you would be aware, energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is simply converted from one form to the other by the action of various processes.

However, during these processes, some of the energy is converted into forms that are not intended or can't be utilized. Think of the simple example of an incandescent lightbulb. When electricity passes through the filament, it glows due to the material's resistance and light is produced. However, due to the same resistance, heat is also produced and that is energy being wasted - both in terms of electricity used and unutilised heat (these also add to cooling costs, one of the biggest components of domestic power usage). One solution is switching to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), which use less power and heat up less.

Energy conservation specialists do something similar for industrial units though of course it is far more complex. Such a professional would first conduct "a survey of energy consuming areas such as equipment, processes, facilities, utilities etc and arrive at accurate data and information on specific energy consumption", says Ramesh Bhatia, consultant, Schneider Electric India.

This is the starting point for an energy audit, which determines wastages and excesses that occur in energy consumption in an industry, building or facility. It also helps to determine the benchmarks for consumption in equipment, process or facility. A necessary component of this activity is to arrive at the ways and means of avoiding such wastages and operate at benchmarks, Bhatia adds.