Chandigarh, January 11- Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal said that it is a matter of pride for the Haryana to score first rank in the country in the State Energy Efficiency Index 2019 released by Govt. of India yesterday. Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in association with Alliance for Energy-Efficient Economy has released the State Energy Efficiency Index 2019 and Haryana has made this remarkable achievement.

Sharing more details, Additional Chief Secretary, Power and New and Renewable Energy department Mr. T C Gupta said that this index tracks the progress of Energy Efficiency (EE) initiatives in 36 states and union territories based on 97 significant indicators. The index is developed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in association with Alliance for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

He said that the State Government has taken several initiatives towards national goals on energy security and climate action by helping drive EE policies and program implementation at the state and local level.

He said that the State had started various programs to strengthen the mechanism for Data collection, capture, availability, and coordination with stakeholder Departments, Mandatory Energy Conservation Notifications and policies, LED penetration increased to more than 62 percent in government buildings. He said that several school outreach programs were launched; institutional tie-ups and capacity building programs, 3000 solar pumps in the Agriculture sector were distributed. Apart from this more than 1.7 lakh street lights were installed, Sewage water treatment and pumping policy and other initiatives for water conservation were launched, an energy audit of 18 Municipalities and street lights under central government scheme was done.

Mr. Gupta said that the Department of Renewable Energy is responsible for formulating policies and programs necessary for popularizing the applications of various non -conventional and renewable sources of energy in the State. The department has implemented various schemes concerning the utilization of solar energy, biogas, micro hydel, biomass Energy etc.

The Department is also acting as a State Designated Agency for the implementation of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 in the State for taking full advantage of fiscal and financial incentives made available by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).