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E-Zone: En route to revenue generation
Praveen K Singh - Mumbai
 Towards
making businesses more profitable and cost effective, Energy Zone was organised
at HospitalityWorld 2006. The day long conference focussed on addressing the
hospitality concerns of generating profits by reducing expenses on power, fuel
and energy sources.
Energy conservation is looked upon as an important implementation area for keeping
the input demand away from becoming a premium. The conference aimed at keeping
bottom-line under check by providing knowledge on how to audit energy consumption
and identify areas where energy savings can benefit the organisation.
The topics discussed at the conference were Energy Auditing and Energy Efficiency,
Importance of energy conservation in hotels, Solar hot water system, Engineered
Ozone Systems & Variable Refrigerant Flow System and Waste water treatment
and its reuse. A presentation was made by the Indian Renewable Energy Development
Agency Ltd (IREDA) to mobilise funds for development and deployment of New and
Renewable Sources of Energy (NRSE), and to assist various schemes for generating
electricity and/or energy through new and renewable sources and conservation
methods. VT Valavan, assistant general manager, IREDA, presented various funding
options available for energy projects.
A presentation by Voltas Limited demonstrated energy conservation through Variable
Refrigerant Flow Systems with Digital Scroll Compressors. It focused on multi-digital
variable systems, which enables space saving, power saving, higher comfort,
automatic cooling and heating, capacity matching loads and faster temperature
control. The system also benefits with its highly reliable digital scroll compressor,
which can be quickly installed (flexibility), quicker servicing, and offers
a wide variety of indoor units. KD Deodhar, director engineering of Taj Group
of Hotels, discussed the importance of energy conservation in hotels. He said
that today most of the properties employ modern gadgets, technology, equipment,
etc, towards energy conservation. The seminar also witnessed case studies on
energy conservation practices by several hotels and implementers of energy saving
models and equipments across the country. Some of features include:
Energy Conservation Initiatives
- More than 90 per cent of bulbs used in the hotel
are energy efficient such as CFL, Fluorescent
- Timers switch on/off street/neon lights
- VFD is installed for soft starter
- Double speed motors installed for improved working
and energy efficiency
- Capacitor Bank and BMS are installed to conserve
energy
- Economisers are used in boilers to recover the heat
from the hot exit gas, which is used for preheating the water fed to boilers
- Solar energy is used for terrace lighting.
Water Conservation Initiatives
- Urinal sensors installed in public toilets to conserve
water (30 per cent reduction in total water usage)
- Taps with aerators are installed conserving 40 per
cent of total water usage
- Drip irrigation method is adopted for gardening
W/C Flush of 6.5 litres used against normal usage of 8 - 10 litres flushing
Waste management initiatives
- Bed linen/towels are reused for making dusters,
face cloths, scarves, swab cloths, waiter clothes, etc.
- Segregation system of wet and dry garbage is adopted
for recycling, reuse and recovering waste
- Left out cooked oil is sold for manufacturing soap
The conference was well attended by over 100 owners/CEOs/GMs and chief engineers.
Many of the participants also acknowledged that the conference was useful in
introducing to them various measures for improving energy efficiency and reducing
cost of production. They admitted that they were not aware about the various
factors of energy wastage and were surprised at the results of the demonstrations.
"We thank Express Hospitality for the conference. They should organise
more such conferences to increase awareness among the professionals and develop
and manage training programmes for energy efficiency at operating levels,"
expressed Gautam Dandekar of Aqua Engineering.
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