Indian Express 14.11.2009

Civic body to open carbon credit account

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is set to open its carbon credits account by January through the use of energy-efficient streetlights. The carbon credits will earn the civic body over Rs 10 lakh a year and will hold good for 10 years.

The PMC has become a part of a consortium of seven civic bodies — Latur, Akola, Indore, Bikaner, Ajmer and Alwar being the others — that have aligned with Mumbai-based Asian Electronics, a supplier of energy-saving equipment, to earn carbon credits.

“The initial process for registration of the project for carbon credit has been completed. Once that happens, the civic body will start getting monetary benefit in the ensuing year,” said Shrikrishna Chaudhari, deputy city engineer, PMC.

Though the project commenced in 2007, many civic bodies had delayed the submission of their proposals resulting in a resultant delay, said Sandip Tambe, general manager, Asian Electronics. He cited the example of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation that was supposed to be part of the consortium, but had to be left out as it was delaying the consent beyond an acceptable timeframe, though it is implementing the energy efficient streetlight project

The PMC’s plan is to replace 15,000 lamps of 150-250 watts with T-5 type fluorescent lamps to reduce power consumption. The new lights have been installed across the city with at least 1,000 energy efficient streetlights in each of the 14 wards. Chaudhari said the main idea behind the project was to save energy and reduce the civic body’s expenditure on power tariff. Once this project is rolled out, there will be a saving of 3 MW per year. There are 1.25 lakh streetlights under the PMC jurisdiction.

The company has also tied up with the World Bank for monetary benefits from the availed carbon credits. The World Bank has already booked the carbon credits from the project and will pay at the rate of $8 per credit.

The proposal is to avail 30,000 carbon credits in all with 6,000 carbon credits for streetlights in the PMC area. The carbon credit sharing agreement between the company and the civic body is in a 60:40 ratio. Around Rs 1.2 crore of monetary benefit is expected from the 30,000 carbon credits; the PMC project alone will account for Rs 24 lakh and the the share of the civic body will be Rs 10 lakh each year.

“The documentation for the proposal to seek carbon credit was done through a Canadian consultancy firm. The project will be registered in two months and money will be disbursed after verification of the performance,” said Madhav Dandvate, assistant general manager, Asian Electronics.