Confederation of Indian Industry - Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre organised "National Award for Excellence in Energy Management" for the fourth time on 31st Oct-1st Nov 2003 in Chennai.

Mr D Jayakumar, Hon'ble Minister for Law, IT & Electricity, Govt of Tamil Nadu gave away the "National Awards for Excellence in Energy Management" to 16 corporate during the Valedictory Function of the National Award for Excellence in Energy Management 2003, here today.

These awards were distributed after presentation by 30 short-listed companies over a period of two-days. More than 200 participants including delegates from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand attended the conference.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr D Jayakumar said Tamil Nadu has achieved almost self sufficient in power generation. Tamil Nadu government would be investing Rs 8000 crores for additional generation of 2000 MW.

He also mentioned that TN has already achieved the number one state in wind power generation with an installed capacity of more than 1100 MW.

He also highlighted that T&D losses of TNEB is 16.5% against all India average of 22% and striving to reduce another 1% of T&D losses, which will result in Rs 100 crores savings per annum.

Mr K Gnanadesikan, IAS, Chairman, TNEB in his address said that power reliability & availability in the state have improved substantially. He mentioned that in all the distribution centers, the power availability is more than 99.5%.

He also highlighted on the mandatory energy audit scheme, which will be shortly extended to all the HT consumers in Tamil Nadu.

Mr K K M Kutty, Chairman, CII (SR) during his address highlighted several initiatives of CII (SR) on competitiveness issues. He said that CII would be glad to work with Tamilnadu Government and Electricity board for improving the competitiveness of the power sector in the state.

More than 200 delegates from all over the country and participants from Bangladesh, Srilanka & Thailand attended the Conference.