Haryana has emerged among top three States in energy efficiency in the building sector in the country as per the 'State Energy Efficiency Index (SEEI), 2020' released by the Union Ministry of Power.

The State has scored 22 out of 30, which has been appreciated at the national level, said PK Das, Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Power Department.

During the release of SEEI 2019, Haryana was in Group 2 states and had topped SEEI 2019. Despite its shift from Group 2 to Group 1, due to increase in primary energy consumption, Haryana has performed well and has ranked third after Karnataka and Rajasthan in the SEEI 2020.

Das said that Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan are among the best performers in the field of energy efficiency. As a result of continuous efforts made by HAREDA in collaboration with Bureau of Energy Efficiency, massive progress has been made in energy saving in Haryana, he said

Giving more details, Director General, New and Renewable Energy Department, Hanif Qureshi, informed that the building sector is the second-highest in total final energy consumption (TFEC) and is projected to grow by 45 percent upto 2027 as compared to 2017.

He said that the 'State Energy Efficiency Index-2020' has defined 16 indicators to evaluate EE initiatives in this sector. These data pertain to Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC-2017), mandatory energy audits of buildings, financial incentives for energy audits, construction/retrofit, adoption of certified green buildings’ institutional capacity to support ECBC-2017 implementation and EE in buildings was analyzed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under which more than 300 green certified buildings are located in Haryana.

Qureshi said that the State Government's initiative to replace conventional lights of government buildings to LED, energy audit, adoption of ECBC and various other schemes related to energy conservation are the main drivers for this performance.