• Ministry of Power, Government of India expanded its ambitious Standards & Labelling (Star Rating) program for Energy Efficient for Appliances to cover the Microwave Ovens and Washing Machines (with revised parameters) in the country.

About Star Labelling Programs:

• The Star Labelling Programs has been formulated by Bureau of Energy Efficiency. The program will now include these two appliances for grant of Star Rating in terms of their energy performance. Initially, the program for above two appliances will be implemented on a voluntary basis and will be valid up to 31st December 2020.
• This initiative will promote advancement of technology and energy efficiency in Microwaves Ovens which is becoming a popular household gadget.
• As regard to the launch of revised program for Washing Machines, he commended BEEs efforts to revise the criteria for inclusion of water efficiency in addition to energy performance for grant of Star Rating.

What is BEE Star Rating?

• Star ratings are provided to all the major kind of appliances in the form of labels. These star ratings are given out of 5 and they provide a basic sense of how energy efficient each product is, just in a single glance.
• The manufacturers are officially required to put these labels as per the Standards and Labelling Program introduced in 2006.
• The prime importance of these Star Ratings is to educate and inform consumers about how energy efficient each product is. This also makes the manufacturer responsible for creating products which are highly energy efficient as consumers may eventually prefer better rated products.
• The BEE is a statutory body under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. It assists in developing policies and strategies with the primary objective of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy. BEE coordinates with designated consumers, designated agencies, and other organizations to identify and utilize the existing resources and infrastructure, in performing the functions assigned to it under the Energy Conservation Act.

Analysis:

• The size of Indian Microwave Oven market stood at 1.21 million units in year FY 2017-18 and is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 2%. Whereas, the size of Indian Washing Machine market stood at 6.1 million units in year FY 2017-18 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 8% fuelled by a growth in urbanization. Therefore, it is important to optimize energy performance of Microwave Ovens and Washing Machines. This will create awareness amongst the domestic consumers to encourage transition towards energy efficient microwave ovens and Washing machines.
• There is an estimate that over 3.0 Billion Units of electricity at consume-end through adoption of Star Rated Microwave Ovens and Washing Machines by 2030. This would be equivalent to Green House Gases (GHG) reduction of 2.4 Million-ton of CO2 by the year 2030 through these initiatives.