Kolkata: By properly implementing various energy efficiency measures, a shopping mall located on the outskirts of Kolkata has become the first mall to get a 5 star ranking by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
Avani Riverside Shopping Mall has incorporated measures like integration of day light, use of sensors and controllers, waste energy recovery wheel, BEE sources said. Spread over 600,000 square feet area the mall is located close to the Second Hooghly Bridge (Vidyasagar Setu) in the adjoining Howrah city.
The mall has also adopted energy management system and performance indicators for facility management staff for energy saving through awareness among shopkeepers, who would be benefited by reduced electricity bills. BEE, a statutory body under the Ministry of Power, has developed a voluntary star rating programme for commercial buildings, which is based on the actual performance of a building in terms of its specific energy usage in kwh/sqm/year.
The Avani mall has achieved an EPI (Average Annual Energy Performance Index) value of 185.62 kWh/sq m/annum in comparison to the business as usual shopping mall EPI of 400 kwh/sq mtr/annum.
The rating programme is designed to motivate building owners to move towards efficient mode of operations thereby resulting in reduced electricity bills and improved comforts. So far more than 150 buildings have been awarded star label under various building categories, which has resulted in about 50 MW avoided capacity.
Considering that addition of each MW of electricity on the generation side costs Rupees 6-7 crores/ MW, merely by adopting low cost energy efficiency measures which has yielded in monitoring savings of about Rs 350 crores. Adoption of the scheme by all commercial buildings would have a greater impact on the overall economy in view of power supply-demand shortfall that our country is currently facing.
