ENERGY SAVING UNDER PRESENT POWER SCENARIO

India has 16% of world’s population, but less than 1% of the world’s energy resources. There is a huge difference in the demand and availability of energy. The total installed capacity is 207006MW and the present peak demand is 217000MW. However this peak demand has not taken into account energy generated through alternate sources. Hence the peak demand may be 10% higher if alternate sources are factored in. The real challenge for the power sector is to narrow this gap. This can be done by increasing the installed capacity but it requires high CAPEX. The second option is to narrow the gap through energy saving or energy conservation.

There is a huge potential to save energy in various sectors i.e. Industrial, Agriculture and domestic. Energy conservation can be achieved by both, a promotional and a regulatory role. Promotional role includes awareness, education, training, demonstration etc. Regulatory role includes energy audits, deciding the norms of energy and implementation of standards through act of parliament.

Some areas of energy conservation are as below:

Supply Side

A) Improving existing thermal power station performance

B) Grid Management

C) Reducing losses in transmission and distribution system

Demand Side

Energy saving initiations can be taken in the following sectors. It is estimated that these initiatives can save upto 20% energy i.e. it can totally end the demand supply gap.

A) Industrial Sector

B) Domestic Sector

C) Commercial Sector

D) Agriculture Sector

Now let us talk about the Energy Conservation on Demand side as most of us are concerned with Demand side. Energy used in Ind., Domestic & Comm. sector plays a vital role in whole energy scenario. Energy saving can be promoted by educating the consumer for using the good quality power i.e. by improving the voltage profile, improving the power factor of system, balance power supply Etc.

When our installed equipment does not get optimum voltage, it consumes excessive energy. This energy wastage is, however, invisible & goes unnoticed. But this poor quality power will have a great impact on our energy bills as well as our costly equipment could be damaged due to this voltage fluctuation. Besides voltage fluctuations and imbalance of phase voltage is also an important factor of energy loss. Unbalancing between the ph. voltages generate problems like heating motors and wiring and hence, increased energy consumption etc.

Electric utilities aim to provide service to customers at a specific voltage level, for example, 220V or 240V, but service voltage to customers will in fact vary along the length of a conductor of a distribution feeder. Since there is no law and local practice, actual service voltage exceeds the tolerance band such as ±5% or ±10%. In order to maintain voltage within tolerance under changing load conditions, various types of devices are traditionally employed by the consumers themselves. In India fluctuations in input power supply are common and frequent and input voltage practically varies between 300 to 480V. If we are able to optimize this fluctuation we can save the energy as well as life and reliability of our installed equipments. Now from below example we can see that how voltage optimization contributes towards energy saving:

Resistive element of load: V = I x R (Where V = Voltage, I = Current & R = Load)

With constant load, reduction in voltage will correspondingly reduce current.

For example a 5% reduction in the voltage at the motor will result a 5% reduction in current.

Now Suppose P1= V x I

After reducing the voltage & current by 5% than P2 = 0.95V x 0.95I = 0.9025VI

So we can conclude that reducing the input voltage by 5% will reduce consumed power by 10%.

This builds up a strong case to maintain optimum voltage at demand side by using SERVO VOLTAGE STABILIZER.

Government has also recognized this fact and is providing 80% depreciation on this product as a energy saving equipment.