The building sector in India is experiencing unprecedented growth. This sector alone accounts for over thirty per cent of India’s total electricity consumption. It is estimated that India is building 3,00,000 square feet of commercial floor space every day and will see one of the largest commercial and residential building construction boom over the next two decades. India is at an inflection point where forty per cent of the building stock that will exist in the next twenty years is yet to be built. This would generate greater demand for energy and hence there is an urgent need to optimise building energy demand in upcoming as well as existing building stock.

In 2001, the EC Act was enacted with the primary objective of providing a necessary legal framework for promoting energy conservation measures (BEE, 2017). The key directives of the act included standards 4 and labelling for appliances, identification of the energy intensive establishments to be notified as Designated Consumers (DC) and their inspection, energy audits by accredited energy auditors, among these were energy efficiency improvement in building sector and amendment of energy conservation building codes to suit local conditions.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency has taken up various policy and regulatory initiatives to enhance energy efficiency of the building sector namely ECBC, ENS, voluntary star rating programme for commercial buildings, star rating for energy efficient homes, net zero energy buildings and PAT scheme. This program focuses on conducting feasibility studies of 100 existing buildings to understand the energy consumption scenario & provide solutions to the building representatives for achieving nZEB status.

Energy Conservation Building Code or ECBC has been updated in 2017 and is known as ECBC 2017. The purpose of the Code is to provide minimum requirements for the energy-efficient design and construction of buildings and it applies to large commercial buildings with connected load of 100 kW and above or 120 kVA and above. ECBC focuses on building envelope, mechanical systems and equipment including heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, interior and exterior lighting systems, electrical systems and renewable energy, and it also takes into account the five climates zones present in India.

Considering the need for reducing energy consumption in buildings, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has taken various initiatives amongst which the Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) program is one such program launched in the year 2019. A building having an Energy Performance Index (EPI) of less than 15 kWh/m2/year is classified as Nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB).

To create a market pull for energy efficient buildings, BEE developed a voluntary Star Rating Programme for commercial buildings which is based on the actual performance of a building, in terms of energy usage in the building over its area expressed in kWh/sq. m/year. This Programme rates buildings on a 1-5 star scale, with 5-Star labelled buildings being the most energy efficient. 

Eco Niwas Samhita 2018, Part – I Building Envelope (Energy Conservation Building Code for Residential Sector) was developed and launched in 2018. It has been developed to set minimum building envelope performance standards to limit heat gains (for cooling dominated climates) and to limit heat loss (for heating dominated climates) while ensuring adequate natural ventilation and daylighting. The code is applicable to all residential use building projects built on plot area ≥ 500 m2. The code has been developed with special consideration for its adoption by the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) into building bye laws.  Eco Niwas Samhita 2021, Part -2 of the code which will provide energy efficiency standards for electro-mechanical systems of residential buildings is in the final stage of development.

Energy Efficiency Label for Residential Buildings was launched in 2019. The key objective of the programme is to make a transparent instrument over the energy performance of a home which will gradually lead to an effective model taken into consideration while deciding over the home prices in future. The objective of the labeling program is to make the energy performance of a home an instrument of comparison while deciding over the home prices in the future. It also aims to provide a benchmark to compare one house over the other on the energy efficiency standards to create a consumer-driven market transformation solution for energy efficiency in the housing sector.

In order to conserve energy and to promote energy efficiency in existing buildings, the Commercial Buildings Sector was covered under PAT Cycle -IV. To start with, 37 Hotels were notified as DCs under the Commercial Building regime. In PAT Cycle-IV, hotels having energy consumption more than 1000 TOE (Tons of oil equivalents) were notified as a Designated Consumer while in PAT Cycle -V and forthcoming cycles of PAT threshold consumption has been revised to 500 TOE to qualify a hotel/commercial building as DC. In PAT cycle V, 31 more Hotels were added as DCs with the saving potential of 1360 TOE till 2022.Similarly in PAT cycle VI, 64 more Hotels were notified as a designated consumer with the target saving of 4154 TOE till 2023. Now, cumulatively 132 Hotels as DCs are covered under the PAT Scheme.