Connect with us

Concrete

Taking Stock of the PAT Thresholds

Published

on

Shares

The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) launched by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency incentivises energy efficiency and consumption, resulting in economic benefits in the long term.

The Indian cement industry is involved in production of several types of cement such as Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), Portland Blast Furnace Slag Cement (PBFS), Oil Well Cement, Rapid Hardening Portland Cement, Sulphate Resisting Portland Cement, White Cement, etc. The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) launched by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, offers an opportunity to the industry to improve its energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption resulting in long term economic benefits in terms of reduced fuel expenditure with trading.

The key goal of the PAT scheme under NMEEE, is to mandate specific energy efficiency improvements for the most energy intensive industries, and further incentivise them to achieve better energy efficiency improvements that are superior to their specified SEC improvement targets. To facilitate this, the scheme provides the option to industries that achieve superior savings to be rewarded with energy saving certificates for the excess savings, and to trade the additional certified energy savings certificates with other designated consumers who can utilise these certificates to comply with their reduction targets. The Energy Saving Certificates (ESCerts) thus issued will be tradable on special trading platforms to be created in the power exchanges.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency focused on development of normalisation factors so as to normalise the variation of operating parameters in the target year with respect to baseline operating parameters.

Let us look at the baseline energy consumption parameters taken for consideration before the normalisation thresholds were ascertained: It would be worthwhile to see how the industry has progressed against this baseline scenario for Thermal Energy Consumption and Electrical Energy Consumption as identified by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

The CII Energy Efficiency Audit conducted over several cement manufacturing units in 2018, provides us with the state of energy efficiency improvements achieved by the Indian industry stalwarts. While the names of the best individual performers have been kept undisclosed, we can at least see the top performing assets and the corresponding efficiencies they have achieved. The CII Report Energy Benchmarking (2019) has given the following data of the top best performing Cement Kilns in terms of Energy Consumption (CII Tables 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.3 – page 30).

The data shows improvement in the energy efficiency, both in the electrical as well as in the thermal area. But this shows the top ten performers doing better than the benchmark values set in 2007- 10. However, we do not know what the average data for the industry is. CII has taken up many energy efficiency improvement projects for implementation with the industry and many of them have been implemented. The gap identified for Electrical efficiency is as follows:

Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) systems on the other hand has given major savings in energy and remains the major focus area for adoption to reduce the electrical energy and related emission. The economics of putting up a captive power generating unit versus putting up a WHR system shows unique advantages for cost reduction. The capital investment for waste heat recovery systems is high at Rs 8 Cr /MW going by the current costs, whereas the CPP units can come at Rs 4.5 cr/MW; however, the project IRR would be very different as the cost of generation would be as low as Rs 0.40 per unit for the former while Rs 4.5 per unit for the latter, which given the current trajectory of fossil fuel prices is already under severe stress of upward correction. It is only the initial cost that continues to act as a deterrent for putting up a WHR unit.

The Indian cement industry must act responsibly and move quickly to put in investments that could raise the WHR installed capacity to cross the minimum threshold of 25 per cent of electricity consumption. That will still be far from the 20 billion KWhr of total electricity consumption by the industry.

The other area of concern is the price trajectory of fossil fuels, which would continue to move northwards. The WHR systems are one simplest way of insulating the industry from the vagaries of future price increases.

Thus, waste heat recovery systems could be the natural hedge to fossil fuel price increases for a substantial portion of the electrical consumption. As matters stand, most WHR systems would be the highest IRR projects that the industry as an ensemble can think of today.

Concrete

Molecor Renews OCS Europe Certification Across Spanish Plants

Certification reinforces commitment to preventing microplastic pollution

Published

on

By

Shares



Molecor has renewed its OCS Europe certification for another year across all its production facilities in Spain under the Operation Clean Sweep (OCS) voluntary initiative, reaffirming its commitment to sustainability and environmental protection. The renewal underlines the company’s continued focus on preventing the unintentional release of plastic particles during manufacturing, with particular attention to safeguarding marine ecosystems from microplastic pollution.

All Molecor plants in Spain have been compliant with OCS Europe standards for several years, implementing best practices designed to avoid pellet loss and the release of plastic particles during the production of PVC pipes and fittings. The OCS-based management system enables the company to maintain strict operational controls while aligning with evolving regulatory expectations on microplastic prevention.

The renewed certification also positions Molecor ahead of newly published European regulations. The company’s practices are aligned with Regulation (EU) 2025/2365, recently adopted by the European Parliament, which sets out requirements to prevent pellet loss and reduce microplastic pollution across industrial operations.

Extending its sustainability commitment beyond its own operations, Molecor is actively engaging its wider value chain by informing suppliers and customers of its participation in the OCS programme and encouraging responsible microplastic management practices. Through these efforts, the company contributes directly to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 14 ‘Life below water’, reinforcing its role as a responsible industrial manufacturer committed to environmental stewardship and long-term sustainability.

Continue Reading

Concrete

Coforge Launches AI-Led Data Cosmos Analytics Platform

New cloud-native platform targets enterprise data modernisation and GenAI adoption

Published

on

By

Shares



Coforge Limited has recently announced the launch of Coforge Data Cosmos, an AI-enabled, cloud-native data engineering and advanced analytics platform aimed at helping enterprises convert fragmented data environments into intelligent, high-performance data ecosystems. The platform strengthens Coforge’s technology stack by introducing a foundational innovation layer that supports cloud-native, domain-specific solutions built on reusable blueprints, proprietary IP, accelerators, agentic components and industry-aligned capabilities.

Data Cosmos is designed to address persistent enterprise challenges such as data fragmentation, legacy modernisation, high operational costs, limited self-service analytics, lack of unified governance and the complexity of GenAI adoption. The platform is structured around five technology portfolios—Supernova, Nebula, Hypernova, Pulsar and Quasar—covering the full data transformation lifecycle, from legacy-to-cloud migration and governance to cloud-native data platforms, autonomous DataOps and scaled GenAI orchestration.

To accelerate speed-to-value, Coforge has introduced the Data Cosmos Toolkit, comprising over 55 IPs and accelerators and 38 AI agents powered by the Data Cosmos Engine. The platform also enables Galaxy solutions, which combine industry-specific data models with the core technology stack to deliver tailored solutions across sectors including BFS, insurance, travel, transportation and hospitality, healthcare, public sector and retail.

“With Data Cosmos, we are setting a new benchmark for how enterprises convert data complexity into competitive advantage,” said Deepak Manjarekar, Global Head – Data HBU, Coforge. “Our objective is to provide clients with a fast, adaptive and AI-ready data foundation from day one.”

Supported by a strong ecosystem of cloud and technology partners, Data Cosmos operates across multi-cloud and hybrid environments and is already being deployed in large-scale transformation programmes for global clients.

Continue Reading

Concrete

India, Sweden Launch Seven Low-Carbon Steel, Cement Projects

Joint studies to cut industrial emissions under LeadIT

Published

on

By

Shares



India and Sweden have announced seven joint projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the steel and cement sectors, with funding support from India’s Department of Science and Technology and the Swedish Energy Agency.

The initiatives, launched under the LeadIT Industry Transition Partnership, bring together major Indian companies including Tata Steel, JK Cement, Ambuja Cements, Jindal Steel and Power, and Prism Johnson, alongside Swedish technology firms such as Cemvision, Kanthal and Swerim. Leading Indian academic institutions, including IIT Bombay, IIT-ISM Dhanbad, IIT Bhubaneswar and IIT Hyderabad, are also participating.

The projects will undertake pre-pilot feasibility studies on a range of low-carbon technologies. These include the use of hydrogen in steel rotary kilns, recycling steel slag for green cement production, and applying artificial intelligence to optimise concrete mix designs. Other studies will explore converting blast furnace carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide for reuse and assessing electric heating solutions for steelmaking.

India’s steel sector currently accounts for about 10–12 per cent of the country’s carbon emissions, while cement contributes nearly 6 per cent. Globally, heavy industry is responsible for roughly one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and consumes around one-third of total energy.

The collaboration aims to develop scalable, low-carbon industrial technologies that can support India’s net-zero emissions target by 2070. As part of the programme, Tata Steel and Cemvision will examine methods to convert steel slag into construction materials, creating a circular value chain for industrial byproducts.

Continue Reading

Trending News