EESL, GEF, Ministry of MSME & UNIDO Join Forces to Promote Energy Efficiency in MSME sector

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a JV under Ministry of Power has joined hands with Ministry of MSME, Government of India, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to implement a national project in India titled “Promoting Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency in Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME)”.

The project aims to deploy 35 energy efficient technologies which have maximum possibility of replication and potential to improve the energy productivity of fellow MSMEs units. The project also aims to adopt various business models of ESCO (Energy Servicing Company) where the MSME unit is expected to pay-back to the investor from the monetized energy savings in a period of time.

In order to facilitate information dissemination on the project to the MSME industries, a technology exhibition cum workshop was held on Saturday, November 20^th, 2021 at Hotel Niharika, Kolkata. The workshop included participants from a large number of MSME units representing the steel re-rolling and foundry sectors. The workshop was attended by Mr. Vinamra Mishra, Director MoMSME, Mr. Debajit Das, National Project Coordinator, UNIDO, Mr. Girja Shankar, GM (T) and Sanjeev Ranjan from EESL, Mr. Vivek Adukia, Chairman, Steel Re-rolling Mill Association & Vice-Chairman, Indian Foundry Association & Mr. Vijay Shankar Beriwal, Chairman, FCDA among others. EESL has signed MoUs with the industry associations for extending mutual support to meet the project targets. EESL has also signed MoA (Agreement) with 4 MSME units for implementation of technologies.

Mr. Girja Shankar, General Manager (Technical) EESL, said, “Under this project, EESL plans to upscale 35 technologies in 12 clusters, including Howrah. We are currently implementing the world’s largest portfolio for energy efficiency and industrial energy efficiency is one of our key focus areas”.

Mr. Vinamra Mishra, Director MoMSME said “Energy efficiency is unavoidable in today’s scenario for sustainability of industries”.

Mr. Debojit Das, UNIDO highlighted “The project aims at implementing innovative finance mechanism to push energy efficiency in the cluster.”

Mr. Vivek Adukia, Chairman, Steel Re-rolling Mill Association & Vice-Chairman, Indian Foundry Association emphasised on the importance of cost savings. “Energy is the key contributor to the production cost and steps must be taken to optimize energy cost to the extent possible” he added.

Under the project, twelve MSME clusters across India have been identified including Howrah mixed cluster, wherein the identified technologies will be demonstrated. EESL has till date identified 4 technologies applicable for the steel re-rolling and foundry industries located in the clusters. 3 out of the 4 technologies have been successfully demonstrated in the cluster while 1 technology is under implementation. As a phase II of the project, EESL intends to replicate these technologies to a larger number of industries in the region, thus helping the industries to become energy efficient and cost competitive. EESL has been entrusted as the technical partner and the project management consultant for the region. The project is expected to save around 1 million tCO₂ annually with an investment potential of around 150 million USD.