Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras has launched a dedicated ‘Industrial Energy Assessment Cell’ (IEAC) to help large and small industries reduce energy consumption through assessments as well as providing evaluated technological solutions. This service is being offered completely free of cost with assessments being done by research scholars, postgraduate and undergraduate students under faculty supervision, a press release said.
The IEAC has already completed seven detailed assessments and 24 walk-through assessments between January and July 2019 and has provided technological solutions that will help each industry obtain project savings between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore, if implemented. A couple of firms had already implemented the suggestions and accrued savings to the tune of Rs 20 lakh. The assessments were across sectors such as biscuit manufacturing, textile manufacturing and elevator manufacturers, the release said.
IIT Madras hopes to help establish similar cells in institutes of national importance such as other IITs and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), which can help industries in their respective regions.
The IIT Madras team of students and a faculty will assess plant-wide energy and resource management system, undertake a detailed study of plant operation and energy usage and suggest means of optimizing energy consumption that will result in considerable financial savings for the manufacturing unit, if it implements the suggestions, the release said.