Certification For Energy Efficiency Services: Fill & Download for Free

Gyanesh Pandey, founder of the company “Husk Power system”About the Company:Husk Power Systems(HPS) is a rural electrification company that uses a renewable energy source to produce and supply electricity at a low cost and in an environmentally friendly way.HPS has emerged as a role model in the renewable energy sector by revolutionizing rural electrification in India. HPS is an innovative social enterprise that promotes decentralized power generation and distribution to remote villages of India. The platform is a biomass gasification technology that converts rice husks into combustible gases that can drive generators to produce electricity. Running on an environmentally friendly model, HPS ensures sustainable electricity to even the most remote parts of the country.HPS creates an ecosystem around each plant by providing income generation opportunities to local farmers and entrepreneurs. Additionally, it creates employment through its livelihood programs such as the incense stick manufacturing program which largely employs women. This enables sustainable development within the communities HPS serves. Since 2008, HPS has successfully installed more than 80 plants in Bihar, providing electricity to over 200,000 people across 300 villages and hamlets.Working of the Business Model:Social Impact:The Companies CEO Gyanesh grew up in a small village in North Bihar. There were two serious problems in his village flood and power. As he was an electrical engineer working in power management industry, He decided to do rural electrification.As an Entrepreneur understood that the widespread lack of electricity was a key barrier to development. About one-third of the country’s population, spread across some 125,000 small rural villages, lack access to electricity. So they started looking for ways to expand access to power and promote development in rural India.He wanted to contribute something for the rural development and he partnered with his best friend from childhood who was living in Patna – Ratnesh Yadav. He automatically assumed that something is not being done because technology for doing it doesn’t exist. So he started to look into new technology like polymer solar cells, Fuel cells, Wind and micro-tidal technology but nothing seems to be perfectly working out for him. He happened to meet a person selling gasifiers thats were the idea of Bio-mass gasification struck him.Ratesh Yadav ( Co-founder of HPS)Out of all the available options for energy creation. Bio mass gasification seemed more fruitful. He researched more about the gasifiers, which were running on rice husk. 40% diesel and 60% gas, which is called dual-fuel mode and realized that 40% diesel model would not be economical. So he started thinking about using, 100% gas, when he began to study the biomass properties of the rice husks, they realized that the technology needed to convert the husks to electricity was especially simple.Financial Viability of the Project:HPS received grants from Shell Foundation and subsidies from Ministry of new and renewable energy. Which would help to launch few power plants and each of these power plants generates enough cash that on an unit level it becomes operationally profitable in the first 3-months of its operation making this business model financially viable.The revenue sources are:1. Payment by household for energy received on a monthly basis.2. Payment by businesses for energy received on a monthly basis.3. Selling rice husk char based products such as incense sticks and bricks.4. Undergoing a CDM certification process that will generate approx. $1200 per plant per year.Alternative for KeroseneThis concept served as a best alternative for the villages to use electricity rather than kerosene. 100 ml of kerosene would give them light for 1 hour. Initial calculation was based on 6 hours of lighting. That came to 18 litre of kerosene per month out of which you get 3 litre in regular market and 15 litre in black market. That made the expense Rs.500. And hence, one may think a price Rs. 250 per lamp is reasonable. But there is a flaw in this logic. If you go and observe, you see that people don’t use 6 hours of light. They use only 2 hours. And they arrived at a price of Rs.50-60 per CFL lamp per month.Pricing:Pay-for-Use service approach is followed by HPS for raising revenue and supplying electricity. The HPS business model is attractive and successful in the rural areas because of its low cost. About 300 kg of rice husk is required as raw material to produce 40 kilowatt of energy, which is sufficient to supply energy to 500 households for 6-12 hours per day.Raw material (waste rice husk) is purchased for Rs. 1 per kg from rice mills. Generally, electricity is supplied to domestic and commercial consumers for fixed 6 - 8 hours in a day. Charge rates are Rs 80/month/2*15 Watt CFL`s and mobile recharge. Low cost pre-paid meters have been installed that can efficiently regulate the flow of low-watt electricity and reduce electricity theft to less than 5 per cent.HPS has a target of over 2,000 plants in operation by end of 2014This is by for one of the greatest innovation which has enriched the lives of many people in rural India.

I have been running a Green Building consulting firm called Y T Enterprises here in India for the last four years. We are doing various projects that are on their way to getting certified through various rating systems like LEED, GRIHA, IGBC Green Homes, Green New Buildings rating and Green Factory.The basic role of a green building consultant is to help the project team make a better building with features that benefit the final occupants and owners of the building. Most of this has to be achieved with minimum cost escalation.A green building consultant needs to be technically sound in almost all areas of construction and operations of the building, even more than the architect in most cases because architects do not normally get involved with the nitty gritties of the MEP services. Where as the green building consultant has to provide his stamp of approval in almost all areas of design and planning.Apart from the technical knowledge about buildings and their environmental performance, the green building consultant needs to have excellent project management skills and marketing skills. Marketing skills are specially important because if you cannot sell the benefits of the green building project to its investors the whole idea becomes economically pointless.The scope of work of a green building consultant is listed below. I may have missed a few things but at the crux of it all; this is it.Manage entire Green Building rating compliance and documentation process.Current design feedback, project acceptance and then project registration with the certification bodyCreating a project strategy to save energy and water; recommend eco-friendly materials, optimise indoor environmental quality and create a sustainable site.Conduct water audits, waste water management and rainwater harvesting studies.Regular meetings with all stake holders making it clear well advance the requirement to meet each credit and assigning responsibility for the same.Creating energy models, daylight simulations of all buildings to demonstrate compliance with energy efficiency, IEQ requirements of the Green Building rating program.Performing all measurement and verification of credits as per the Green Building rating programCompiling all documentation, photos, technical specification, various calculations, getting the required authorisation letters and signatures from stake holders and any other write ups and documentation required by the certification body to carry out the assessment of the project.Duly submitting all documentation to the certification body and act as a one point contact for the evaluators and respond to any clarifications they might require.Regular site visits to keep the contractors up to date on the requirements and to ensure the criteria are stringently followed.Identifying and recommending suppliers for green building material and services procurement.Being accountable if any targeted credit is missed due to poor submissions or due to misinformation provided to the responsible stake holder.The good green building consultant should be able to provide the following deliverables and benefits to his/her clients:Introduce best practises in energy & water management.Provide accurate energy efficiency and water efficiency data.Help minimise waste during construction and introduce best practises in waste management post occupancy.Improving indoor environmental quality to meet minimum daylighting and ventilation requirements.Introduce best practises in improving quality of life and maximising productivity.Compiling a Green Building Owner's Manual complete with green building features, how to lead a green lifestyle, maintenance tasks and other operational information.Staff training and awareness on project green features.Providing any guidance to a stake holder if necessary.Provide assistance in creating a clear marketing campaign and help generate awareness of the GREEN credentials of the project. This includes creating an online presence for the project, writing a case study, blog articles etc.Provide any other sustainability related advice, service and assistance within scope.The general impression is that a green building consultant simply compiles all documentation required to demonstrate compliance with the various green building rating systems. But the truth is that a good green building consultant should ideally bring a lot more to the table.Due to the nature of their job, green building consultants are naturally focussed on efficiency in every aspect, even their day to day living. This makes them ideal candidates for handling projects where more needs to be done with less. The project owner should be in a position put his faith in this individual and ideally use him as his right hand man when it comes to making project decisions.

In India the National certification exam for energy managers and auditors is the major certification the exam, and is conducted by National Productivity Council (NPC) apart from this,there are few other certifications in green buildings sector like IGBC Accredited Professional, Griha certified professional etc.National certification exam for energy managers and auditorsAs per the Energy Conservation act 2001, section 13(r) under powers of Bureau of Energy Efficiency says , by regulations, certification procedures for energy managers to be designated or appointed by designated consumers;The Central Government notified the criteria for Designated Consumers vide S.O no. 394(E) dated 12th March, 2007 under which industrial units from 9 energy intensive sectors (Aluminum, Cement, Chlor-Alkali, Fertilizer, Iron & Steel, Paper & Pulp, Railways, Thermal Power and Textile) have been notified as Designated Consumers. The Government has notified the mandatory Energy Audit vide S.O 1378 (E) dated 27th May, 2014 for the Designated Consumers to help in identifying various energy saving opportunities in energy intensive industries & other establishments.As per the EC act it is the accredited energy auditors, not the certified energy auditors who are supposed to do the mandatory energy audit.Responsibilities of Energy Managers1.Prepare an annual activity plan and present to management concerning financially attractive investments to reduce energy costs.2.Establish an energy conservation cell within the firm with management’s consent about the mandate and task of the cell.3.Initiate activities to improve monitoring and process control to reduce energy costs.4.Analyze equipment performance with respect to energy efficiency.5.Ensure proper functioning and calibration of instrumentation required to assess level of energy consumption directly or indirectly.6.Prepare information material and conduct internal workshops about the topic for other staff.7.Improve disaggregating of energy consumption data down to shop level or profit center of a firm.8.Establish a methodology how to accurately calculate the specific energy consumption of various products/services or activity of the firm.9.Develop and manage training programme for energy efficiency at operating levels.10.Co-ordinate nomination of management personnel to external programs.11.Create knowledge bank on sectoral, national and international development on energy efficiency technology and management system and information denomination.12.Develop integrated system of energy efficiency and environmental upgradation, Wide internal & external networking.13.Co-ordinate implementation of energy audit/efficiency improvement projects through external agencies.14.Establish and/or participate in information exchange with other energy managers of the same sector through association.Eligibility for appearing in this examination?.A. a) Certified Energy Manager:(CEM)1. a graduate Engineer (Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Technology) or equivalent with three years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.; or2. a post-graduate Engineer (Master of Engineering/Master of Technology) or equivalent with two years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.; or3. a graduate Engineer with post-graduate degree in Management or equivalent with two years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.; or4. a diploma Engineer or equivalent with six years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.; or5. a post-graduate in Physics or Electronics or Chemistry (with Physics and Mathematics at graduation level) with three years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.b) Certified Energy Auditor:(CEA)1. a graduate Engineer (Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Technology) or equivalent with three years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.; or2. a post-graduate Engineer (Master of Engineering/Master of Technology) or equivalent with two years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.; or3. a graduate Engineer with post-graduate degree in Management or equivalent with two years of work experience involving use of energy in operation, maintenance, planning, etc.Candidates without requisite work experience are not eligible to register for the examination.Qualifications for accredited energy auditor.-An energy auditor shall be qualified to become an accredited energy auditor if, he/she)a)is a certified energy manager and has passed the examination in “Energy Performance Assessment for Equipment and Utility Systems” conducted by the Bureaub) has an experience of five years in energy audit out of which at least three years’ shall be in any of the Energy Intensive Industries; andc) has been granted a certificate of accreditation by the Bureau.