National programme on Energy Efficiency and Technology Up gradation of SMEs

Indian SME sector consumes energy equivalent to about 50 million tons of oil equivalent annually, which is about 20 to 25% of the energy consumption by large industries. SMEs in India are exists in form of clusters which are spread across the length and breadth of the country, and are involved in producing textiles, bricks , hand tools, metal castings and forging and pumps. The projected energy consumption in SMEs by 2017 is expected to increase to 68.2 mtoe with a projected annual growth rate of 6.0 percent.National program on Energy Efficiency and technology up gradation of SMEs (BEE-SME) scheme: In its endeavour to accelerate uptake of Energy Efficiency in SME sector, BEE initiated a program specifically to improve the energy performance of this sector in the year 2009. This program is fully funded by Government of India. In the XI Plan i.e. from FY 2007-2012, BEE conducted a number of activities starting with a Situation analysis in selected 35 SME clusters out of which 25 SMEs clusters (12 Sector Type) were undertaken for further interventions. Comprehensive energy audit and technology gap assessment was completed in 25 SMEs clusters . A repository of 375 DPRs on energy efficient technologies were prepared and peer-reviewed. Information Dissemination and awareness creation workshop were held in 51 SMEs clusters. Implementation of Small Group Activities was completed in 9 units of 3 clusters. Capacity building of Local Service Providers/Technology Providers in 25 SMEs clusters was completed. By the end of the XI plan energy savings, assessed form 988 units of 26 clusters quantified to 4934.45 toe / annum with voluntary investment of Rs 28.06 crore made by the units (988 units). BEE interventions in the XIth plan have shown that there is a vast potential to save energy in various MSMEs industries in India. These lie both in the thermal energy domain where the design of furnaces and recovery of waste heat have enormous potential, as also in the electrical energy domainIn order to make this programme more beneficial and attractive for the SME’s unit owners of the clusters and to ensure widespread replication, BEE in the XII plan, has been focusing on two activities Implementation of 100 energy efficient technology demonstrations in 5 energy intensive clusters with provisions of back ended subsidy of 50% of the total cost of the technology per unit subject to a max of Rs 10 Lakhs. Information dissemination and capacity building workshops for SME unit owner across the country to disseminate the results in terms of energy savings achieved by through these technology demonstration projects for their wide spread replication