New Delhi, India has taken major strides towards reducing energy intensity of the economy, bringing it down by 20 per cent from 2005 levels, Power Minister R.K. Singh said on Wednesday.

"We have pledged in COP-21 that we will bring down energy intensity of economy by 33 to 35 per cent compared to 2005 levels by 2030. Now, with our energy efficiency initiatives, we have already reduced the energy intensity of our economy by 20 per cent compared to 2005 levels which is a very good performance indeed," Singh said while releasing a report on "Impact of energy efficiency measures for the year 2018-19" through video conference.

The report has been prepared by audit and advisory firm PWC Ltd, which was engaged by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for an independent verification to assess the resultant annual savings in energy as well as CO2 emissions through various initiatives in India.

The findings of the report reflect that implementation of various energy efficiency schemes have led to total electricity savings to the tune of 113.16 Billion Units in 2018-19, which is 9.39er cent of the net electricity consumption.

Energy savings (electrical + thermal), achieved in the energy consuming sectors (i.e. Demand Side sectors) is to the tune of 16.54 Mtoe (millions tons of oil equivalent), which is 2.84 per cent of the net total energy consumption (approx. 581.60 Mtoe) in 2018-19.

The total energy savings achieved in 2018-19 is 23.73 Mtoe, which is 2.69 per cent of the total primary energy supply (estimated to be 879.23 Mtoe in India) during 2018-19. This includes both supply side and demand side sectors of the economy.

Overall, the study has estimated that various energy efficiency measures have translated into savings worth Rs 89,122 crores (approximately) against last year's (2017-18) savings of Rs 53,627 crore. These efforts have also contributed in reducing 151.74 Million Tonnes of CO2 emissions, whereas last year this number was 108 MTCO2.

Since 2017-18, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) every year appoints a third party expert agency to conduct study for comparing the actual energy consumption due to different energy efficiency schemes, with the estimated energy consumption, had the current energy efficiency measures were not undertaken i.e. counterfactual. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance and impact of all the key energy efficiency programmes in India, in terms of total energy saved and the related reduction in the CO2 emissions.

This year, the study has identified following major programmes, viz. Perform, Achieve and Trade Scheme, Standards & Labelling Programme, UJALA Programme, Municipal Demand Side Management Programme, etc.