Advancing Energy Efficiency in India. Make Energy Efficiency A Movement
“45% energy consumed by the industry is utilised by motor-driven equipment. So, there is immense scope for efficiency enhancement”, said Sanjeev Arora, President – Motion Business & IEC Low Voltage Motors, ABB India during the ABB’s Stakeholders Meet organised on August 20, 2025, in New Delhi. Arora also urged the industry to adopt energy efficiency measures and leverage efficiency enabling schemes. Even though The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) in India is replacing the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme, targeting to reduce Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) by industries it can continue to be good initiative to lower GHG (Greenhouse gas) intensity and surely the energy efficiency will continue to play a key role towards this objective.
Under this market-based scheme, companies that exceed their energy savings targets are issued Energy Saving Certificates (ESCerts), which they can sell to companies that fail to meet their targets; thus creating a cap-and-trade system that incentivises energy efficiency.
The round table was much in line with Sustainable Development Goal 7.0 that aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all by 2030 under which the key targets include achieving universal access to affordable energy, increasing the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix and improving the energy efficiency in order to achieve world’s primary net zero target to limit global warming to 1.5oC by around 2050 under the Paris Agreement. This goal requires about 45% reduction in net human-generated carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. Achieving this goal is indeed crucial for sustainable development goals contributing to economic growth and for mitigating the climate change.
Two Impactful Panel Discussions
Convened by ABB Motion, one of the leaders in energy efficient motors and drives, the round table comprised of two panel discussions, the first one with the theme ‘Doubling down on Energy Efficiency to accelerate Decarbonisation’ moderated by Amit Gupta, Division President – Motion Services, ABB India Ltd. and the second one entitled ‘Driving India’s Industrial Competitiveness through Energy Efficiency’ moderated by Vedavyas Nayak S, Head – Marketing and Business Development, Motion Business, ABB India Ltd. The panelists for the first one included Erich Labuda, Global Division President, Motion Services, ABB Ltd. and EC Member, Energy Efficiency Movement; Subhasis Das, Managing Director, Alfa Laval India Pvt. Ltd.; Sookrit Malik, Co-founder and CEO, Energeia and Amit Roy, Sr. Business Management Manager – Business Operations, Baker Hughes.
Erich Labuda highlighted that moving away from combustion as energy source to electrification has led to achieving up to 99% energy efficiency. “We are at the forefront of driving this change,” he added. Labuda remarked that energy efficiency requires knowledge-sharing, creating awareness and education.
He said, “with our customers, we go through their operations, we assess where what is possible and then provide them with solutions that fit their needs”.
The event provided a forum to highlight the fact that energy saved through efficiency measures is inde-ed a first fuel. About 37% energy can be saved through efficiency measures that are easily implementable; what is needed is the collective will to share the knowledge and know-how with the stakeholders, train people and collaborate for decarbonisation – a universal priority across industries, highlighted Erich Labuda.
Use Motors with High Efficiency Ratings
The panelists for the second session included Sanjeev Arora, President – Motion Business & IEC Low Voltage Motors, ABB India; Gaurang Mishra, Joint Director, Centre for High Technology; Oswald Deuchar, Head, Modernisation Services, ABB Motion Services; Dr. Satish Kumar, President and Executive Director, AEEE (Alliance for Energy Efficiency Economy) and Sunil Singhal, Managing Director, Chemical System Technologies.
The panel discussion centered around adopting measures like incentivising technology- driven energy efficient, sustainable solutions and creating awareness for new generation international efficiency (IE) compliant products like IE4 and IE5 motors.
Sanjeev Arora spoke about the progress being made in energy efficiency in certain industries like oil and gas, refineries and petrochemicals. He said that energy efficiency initiatives, however, are not taking off in the way it should in many other industries, despite the energy reduction measures being a low-hanging fruit. “Industry should move quickly to IE3 and IE4 motors, which have higher efficiency levels”, he said. “ABB India is manufacturing more than 50% of IE3 and IE4 motors. The company is now working on proof of concept for IE5 efficiency grade motors”, he added.
Creating a Knowledge Based/Sharing Ecosystem to Drive Energy Efficiency
Sookrit Malik, Co-founder and CEO, Energeia stressed the importance of educating the customers, creating awareness to prove the tremendous opportunities in energy usage reduction and thus cost savings. Adequate training should also be provided to customers, he added.
ABB Motion Services; Gaurang Mishra, Joint Director, Center of High Technology; Sunil Singhal,
Managing Director, Chemical Systems.
Dr. Satish Kumar, President and Executive Director, AEEE stated that for an enabling ecosystem of energy efficiency other elements also need to sync together like financing, government policy, measurement and verification to fast track the adoption of energy efficient technologies.
Sunil Singhal, chemical engineer with over five decades of experience across sugar, bioenergy and environmental sectors, with 5 patents to his credit for technologies related to sustainable chemical processes, waste valorisation and clean water technologies spoke on the possibilities of efficiency enhancement and value-addition in sugar industry. He highlighted that making processes more energy efficient enable companies earn carbon credits. Companies should also explore newer products from same raw materials, he urged. Citing an example from sugar industry Singhal said that with ethanol blending targets continuing to increase, diversification to ethanol production along with sugar has reaped immense benefits for the industry.
Digitalisation to Step up Efficiencies
Speaking to Chemical Industry Digest on the sidelines of the event, Oswald Deuchar, Head, Modernisation Services, ABB Motion Services highlighted the importance of modernisation services that significantly extend a product’s life. Oswald highlighted that digitalisation of motors and drives through AI and data analytics is very much on company’s agenda. Besides, he shared that ABB is also committed to investing in new technologies like a recent investment in Netherlands. Oswald emphasised on how an ecosystem of energy efficiency is important to be created in organisations from top management to down the line entire workforce.
Amit Gupta, in a tête-à-tête with Chemical Industry Digest, highlighted that ABB’s focus is to enhance the complete life cycle of the product, that includes right from commissioning to the pre-defined upgrades and retrofitting that eventually lead to an extension of the life cycle. ABB also offers its customers services on diagnostics, maintenance and sustainability, he added. Speaking on the use of AI for efficiency enhancement in motors and drives, Gupta highlighted that intense digitalisation through integration of AI is on and that eventually is making the operations leaner.
The event brought together policymakers, industry leaders and technology experts for a dialogue on how electrification, digitalisation and smarter technologies can accelerate India’s industrial growth while keeping sustainability at its core. Key takeaways from the discussion included:
- Energy efficiency as a driver of industrial competitiveness and long-term resilience.
- The critical role of policy support and industry collaboration in scaling adoption.
- How innovation in digital and electrification solutions can help industries do more with less.
ABB has a standing of over 75 years in manufacturing in India. The event provided an opportunity to reposition ABB’s products and services as a reliable name for energy efficient, sustainable solutions for industrial motion.
