Consumers must get incentives to buy energy-efficient cooling appliances: Godrej

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: Jamshyd N Godrej, chairman of consumer goods to engineering solutions firm Godrej & Boyce, has pitched for a new government policy to phase out old and inefficient cooling products such as air-conditioners and refrigerators from the Indian markets by incentivising the switch to appliances that consume less energy.

“A good policy will be for old products to be taken out of the market, and I think that's been done in many cases (for manufacturers), for example, automobiles and things like air-conditioners and refrigerators," Godrej said in an interview. “Remove the inefficient ones from usage.

It's easier said than done because what you must do is you've got to be able to give the right incentive for the consumer to move to a new product, which is more efficient." Demand for cooling appliances and beverages rose sharply in north India this summer, with temperatures touching 50 degrees Celsius in some parts of New Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. Resultant heat waves led to complaints of cooling products not working efficiently and incidents of air-conditioners catching fire, raising concerns about their ability to effectively manage extreme heat.

Incentivising consumers to buy more efficient air-conditioners and refrigerators will reduce electricity consumption and ease the burden on generation companies to meet the nation’s peak power demand, which touched a record 250 GW in May this year. “Governments have, from time to time, realised that even if you pay somebody to take something out of use, it's a benefit to society because now if energy companies have to go on producing more energy, it's a big burden on cost.