Achieving Energy Efficiency Goals: A Review of PAT Cycle 1-6

India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and as a result, energy demand is also increasing at a rapid pace. The government of India launched the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme in 2012 to address the issue of energy conservation and reduction of carbon emissions. PAT is a market-based mechanism that aims to reduce energy consumption in energy-intensive industries through the promotion of energy efficiency practices. This article will provide an overview of the PAT scheme and the key highlights of each PAT cycle.

PAT Cycle-I (2012-15) The first cycle of the PAT scheme started in 2012 and concluded in 2015. The cycle had 478 designated consumers (DCs) from eight energy-intensive sectors, including aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali, fertilizer, iron & steel, pulp & paper, thermal power plant, and textile. The baseline annual energy consumption of these DCs was around 164 million toe. The target was to achieve an energy consumption reduction of 6.685 million toe, and the energy savings achieved were 8.67 million toe, which was 1.985 million toe in excess of the target. Additionally, the cycle led to a reduction of 31 million tonnes of CO2eq. emissions, and 3.825 million EScerts were issued to over-achievers.

PAT Cycle-II (2016-19) The second cycle of the PAT scheme started in 2016 and concluded in 2019. In this cycle, three more sectors, including DISCOMS, railways, and refineries, were added to the existing eight sectors. The total number of DCs notified in this cycle was 621. The target was to achieve an overall energy consumption reduction of 12.13 million toe, and the energy savings achieved were 14.08 million toe, which was 4.57 million toe in excess of the target. The cycle also led to a reduction of 66.1 million tonnes of CO2eq. emissions, and 5.7 million EScerts were issued to over-achievers.

PAT Cycle-III (2019-20) The third cycle of the PAT scheme was notified on 31st March 2017, and the baseline year for this cycle was taken as 2015-16, and the target year was 2019-20. The total number of DCs notified were 116 from six sectors, namely, thermal power plants, aluminium, cement, fertilizer, pulp & paper, and textile. The total savings target was given as 1.06 million tonnes of oil equivalent, which corresponds to a reduction of around 3 million tonnes of CO2eq. emissions.

PAT Cycle-IV (2020-21) For the fourth cycle of the PAT scheme, the baseline year was taken as 2016-17, and the target year was 2020-21. A total of 109 DCs were likely to achieve a total reduction target of 0.6998 million tonnes of oil equivalent. These DCs were from eight sectors, consisting of six existing sectors and two new sectors, including petrochemicals and commercial buildings. Under the commercial building sector, hotels were identified as the potential designated consumer sub-sector for this cycle. The total expected CO2 emissions reduction from PAT-IV is around 2 million tonnes.

PAT Cycle-V (2019-22) The fifth cycle of the PAT scheme started in 2019, and 110 DCs from the existing sectors of PAT were notified. The total energy consumption of these DCs is about 15.244 million TOE, and they are expected to achieve a total energy savings of 0.5130 million TOE.

PAT Cycle-VI (2020-23): PAT Cycle-6 commenced in 2020 and included 135 DCs from six sectors. The total energy consumption of these DCs was about 23.298 million toe and they were expected to achieve a total energy savings of 1.277 million toe. Cement grinding units have been notified separately as a sub-sector of cement with a threshold of 10,000 toe.

summary table of the PAT cycles 1-6: