Minister for Power, Raj Kumar Singh announced the launch of ‘Energy Efficiency Label for Residential Sector’ program in India. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has developed this label for residential buildings to provide information to consumers about the energy efficiency program standard of the homes to be built across India.

The Labelling mechanism is expected to help reduction in energy bills for home buyers. Singh launched the labeling program at the inaugural session of the Conference of Power and Renewable Energy Ministers of States and Union Territories at Gurugram, Haryana.

The objective of the labeling program is to make an energy performance of a home an instrument of comparison while deciding over the home prices in the future. It also aims to provide a benchmark to compare one house over the other on the energy efficiency standards to create a consumer-driven market transformation solution for energy efficiency in the housing sector.

The proposed labeling program is expected to save a substantial amount of electricity through various energy efficiency efforts in the residences nationwide. With the implementation of the energy efficiency label for residential buildings, energy savings is estimated to be up to 40 percent over traditional houses with annual savings of 90 billion units by the year 2030.

This program is another step towards realizing the vision of an energy surplus India with 24*7 power to all.

Recently BEE and the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) kickstarting their cooperation to promote energy efficiency in buildings. The MoU will remain in force for five years unless rescinded by either party.

According to the MoU, BEE and CPWD will cooperate on promoting designs and construction of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) compliant new buildings, star rating of CPWD managed buildings across the country with no registration or renewal fee, awareness on energy efficiency in building sector and support for capacity building of CPWD officials in ECBC.

Last year, the government launched ECO Niwas Samhita 2018, which is the ECBC for residential buildings, to push for energy efficiency in the residential sector. The code aims for promoting design and construction of homes including apartments and townships to give the benefits of energy efficiency to the occupants.