Tata Power reaches 2.5 million

The energy conservation initiative by Tata Power via school contact programmes has reached out to 2.5 million citizens since 2007.

Recognising the need to curb wastage of energy, Tata Power had started a unique initiative of energy conservation by reaching out to students in schools via school contact programmes.

The initiative, called Tata Power Energy Club (TPEC), was launched in 2007 and has managed to sensitise 2.5 million citizens, via 400 schools. About 2.8 million units of electricity have been saved, till date, through this initiative.

In its most recent campaign of 2010-11, TPEC sensitised more than 2.5 lakh children across 285 schools nationwide. These children further reached out to more than eight lakh people, thereby taking the total sensitisation figure to more than one million. The club members have collectively saved 2,019,563 units of electricity.

For this achievement, TPEC has recently been given the Most Innovative Campaign award at the US' The Energy Daily's Leadership Awards 2010. Each year, The Energy Daily, with the help of a panel of energy experts, recognises leaders, influential companies, innovative campaigns and technologies with The Energy Daily's Leadership Awards. The Most Innovative Campaign award is bestowed to recognise a firm/organisation for designing a powerful and successful energy campaign.

Discussing the one million mark reached in 2010-11, Anil Sardana, managing director, Tata Power, says, "We are proud to reach this milestone in driving energy conservation awareness across the country and I am delighted to see TPEC being felicitated on a global platform. It's heartening to note that it has become a national movement and is playing a vital role in aiding young minds, who have been the core influencers in advocating energy and resource conservation."

Under the TPEC programme, school children from Classes III-IX undergo simple, but effective half hour audio-visual presentation sessions, creating awareness on the increasing demand for energy, the existing gap between demand and supply, and the impact on the environment. It then guides students on ways to prevent wastage of power.

Subsequently, students are asked to implement the lessons learnt in their schools and homes. The students who manage to demonstrate savings in their monthly electricity bills on a consistent basis, as well as reach out to a large number of people are felicitated as Energy Champions.

The club now has more than 19,095 Energy Champions who are spreading the mantra of energy conservation among people across various ages and income groups.

In fact, TPEC started with a pilot programme of educating and sensitising 12 schools in Mumbai in 2007, and sensitised 6,000 students in 12 schools across Mumbai. Encouraged by the initial response, it covered 28 schools across Mumbai and Belgaum in 2008. The total primary sensitisation numbers were 11,417, who in turn, reached out to a secondary sensitisation of 26,922 citizens. The students were enthusiastically involved in workshops and campaigns to understand the crisis and work towards reducing energy wastage.

In 2009, Tata Power Energy Club became a national movement and covered more than 250 schools across nine cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Jamshedpur, Lonavala, Belgaum, Bengaluru and Kolkata. To spark off a youth initiative for curbing energy wastage through active measures, it has also been inducting college students in Mumbai and Pune this year.

There are today, 154 mini Tata Power Energy Clubs across Mumbai, which are run by school children with the aim to stop wastage of electricity. The energy saving programme has been taken up as project work in various Mumbai schools. As a part of this programme, 500 school children also conducted mass sensitisation sessions during Ganesh Utsav and street plays in prominent locations and housing societies across Mumbai. TPEC has also gone digital to promote the cause through its presence on Facebook.

In November 2010, Tata Power Energy Club was presented with a gold award by the Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI) in the Environmental Communications category; it was also ranked No. 2, out of 22 entries in the Earth Care category of Siemens Ecovative Award 2010.