The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) virtually launched “Certification Course on Home Energy Audit (HEA)”yesterday, during "National Energy Conservation Week: 8th–14th December 2021", marked as Iconic Week under "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav".

A Home Energy Audit (HEA) enables appropriate accounting, quantification, verification, monitoring, and analysis of energy use of various energy-consuming equipment and appliances in a house and the submission of a technical report with feasible solutions and recommendations for improving energy efficiency, with a cost-benefit analysis and action plan to reduce energy consumption. This would ultimately lead to a reduction in energy bills and the carbon footprint of the consumer.

The certification program will create awareness on importance and benefits of energy audit and energy efficiency and conservation among students from engineering/diploma colleges. This willincrease employability of youth in the domain of energy efficiency, climate change mitigation, and sustainability.

The Certification Course would enable:

• Creation of a pool of professionals to perform home energy audits based on the needs of the consumer (s);

• Domestic consumers to get Home Energy Audit carried out through respective SDA Certified Home Energy Auditor(s);

• Dissemination of information and raising awareness among engineering/diploma/ITI students, energy professionals, and industry partners about the importance and benefits of energy auditing, energy efficiency, and conservation.

Energy Management Centre, Kerala has been identified as Mentor SDA for the initiative. Other 11 SDAs namely Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Sikkim, and Telangana have expressed their willingness to run the Certification Course on HEA for respective stakeholders in their states. On successful completion of the certification course, SDA will offer the certificate to qualifying students/personnel.

The welcome address and programme brief were presented by Shri R. K. Rai, Secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency and Shri Abhishek Sharma, Joint Director, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, followed by an inaugural address by Shri AbhayBakre, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

Dr. R. Harikumar, Director, Energy Management Centre, Kerala, gave a presentation on “Overview & Way Forward for Certification Course on Home Energy Audit”. The launch event was also attended by Vice Chancellors, Chairpersons, Managing Directors, faculties, and students from various Engineering / Diploma colleges and officials of all State Designated Agencies (SDAs) across the country. More than 300 students from 50 colleges/institutes across country participated in the webinar.

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MV/IG