Unbiased Information and Reviews on Appliances, Solar and Saving Electricity

What is BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) in India?

By on April 22, 2016

We have been doing “Bijli Bachao” for a year now and this thought never crossed our mind that people may not know about BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) in India. While talking to someone recently we came across this question “what is BEE?” and we realized that this is something many in the country many not know about. Most people while buying appliances look at the star ratings but this knowledge of who is doing it is not very obvious. Although BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) has been in operation since 2002 and has been actively rating appliances for their efficiency since 2006, few people are not aware of its activities and also about how it came into existence.

About BEE

BEE was setup by Government of India on 1st March 2002 under the provisions of Energy Conservation Act, 2001. As the whole world is grappling with challenges of climate change and global warming, there is a lot of push to take measures to reduce CO2 emissions across the world. Although renewables sources like solar and wind are identified as sources that can generate energy without CO2 emissions. These sources have not reached a stage where they can completely replace our existing electricity generation methods. Saving energy or using less energy (for doing the same work) has been identified as the easiest way of reducing CO2 emissions. BEE has been started with a mission to create policies and develop strategies with a thrust on self-regulation and market principles to achieve energy efficiency.

BEE coordinates with government, industries, manufacturers and consumers to facilities measures to be taken for conservation of energy.

Major Activities of BEE

BEE does both regulatory and promotional activities. As part of regulatory activities it does following:

  • It sets performance standards for appliances and designs labeling scheme for the same. The star rating of various appliances like AC, Refrigerators, Fans, Pumps, Water Heaters, etc is part of this mandate that they have.
  • They develop energy efficiency code for buildings and Industries.
  • They certify Energy Managers and Energy Auditors who can perform energy audits.
  • They develop norms for energy consumption.

As part of their promotional activities they do:

  • Create promotional programs for energy efficiency, star-rating and other awareness programs.
  • Arrange and organize trainings for people who can do energy efficiency projects.
  • Develop testing and certification procedures and promote testing facilities.
  • Promote innovative financing of energy efficiency projects
  • Give financial assistance to institutions for promoting efficient use of energy and its conservation
  • Prepare educational curriculum on efficient use of energy and its conservation

About the BEE Star Rating Program

As mentioned above, BEE sets the standards and label for marking star-rating of various appliances. They also define the testing and certification procedures for all kinds of appliances. When manufacturers make a new model and they want to get their product certified, they do the tests for their appliance as per the procedures designed by BEE and apply for star certification with the data from the tests. Based on the test data BEE provides a star rating for appliances. BEE keeps on refining the standards and certification procedures periodically. To know more about BEE star rating program check our article: BEE Star Rating Program Explained.

About the Author:
Abhishek Jain is an Alumnus of IIT Bombay with almost 10 years of experience in corporate before starting Bijli Bachao in 2012. His passion for solving problems moved him towards Energy Sector and he is keen to learn about customer behavior towards Energy and find ways to influence the same towards Sustainability. .

Top