Srinagar: The Institution of Engineers India (IEI) J&K State Centre, Srinagar and National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India in collaboration with Divisional Administration, Kashmir and Power Distribution Corporation Ltd Kashmir and J&K State Emergency Operation Centre, Srinagar, organised a Webinar on Energy Conservation today.
The patrons of the Webinar, Major General Manoj K. Bindal, Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Er. Narendra Singh, FIE, President Institution of Engineers (IEI) and Pandurang K. Pole, IAS, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, had conveyed their messages for the success of the Webinar. The speakers included Er. K.K. Mahajan, Lead Energy Auditor, Architect Niyati Gupta from School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi, Dr. Janmejoy Gupta, HOD Architecture, SPA Vijayawada, Andra Pradesh. More than 200 participants attended, including Chief Engineers, Additional Deputy Commissioners, Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers, Tehsildar Head Quarter, Council and Corporate Members of IEI, Students from NIT Srinagar and SSM College of Engineering, Parihaspora, besides Mohmmed Suhail Wani and Bilquees Dar, Disaster Management Consultants at JKSEOC and Yogita Grabyal Young Professional NIDM.
Er. Aamir Ali, Chairman IEI and Nodal Officer SEOC said that the purpose of the Webinar was to highlight the importance of conservation of energy in our daily life and to generate a healthy discussion for less usage of energy. He stressed on the need to sustain the natural resources that are already depleting and use them economically and conserve for our future generations. He urged to make efforts in reducing the carbon footprint and carbon emissions to help improve cleaner air quality and minimize natural disasters.
Dr. Amir Ali Khan, Faculty from NIDM New Delhi said that energy is used in our daily lives, in the form of electricity, heat, fuel, food, air or water and conserving it will ensure that we can live a better quality of life. He suggested that everyone should adopt energy efficient appliances and devices to save electricity. He also suggested that water should be used judiciously and methods like rain-water harvesting should be adopted.
Er. M. Aaquib Sultana Waheed Deva, Honorary Secretary IEI conducted the webinar and said that there is a need to construct green buildings and conserve energy in our day to day life. She gave examples that while cooking we should conserve fuel, by keeping a lid on our utensils, switch off our vehicles, when idle at red lights and drive smoothly to save petrol or diesel, adopt car-pooling with colleagues, or use the public transport, but wear mask at all times, in view of Covid-19.
The experts dwelt on various aspects of energy conservation and sensitised about the issue and urged the participants to adhere to the tips provided and adopt them stringently in our daily lives.
Niyati Gupta, pursuing her PhD in architecture described the building physics and their energy efficiencies and said that there is strong need to incorporate good practices for resource efficiency and optimization use while planning for buildings. Energy efficient building design is location dependent thus it is important to consider the local climate and geology while selecting appropriate design strategies in any area.
Er. KK Mahajan spoke about energy conservation, energy efficiency, efficient use of resources, climate change and said that energy conservation means using less energy. He stressed on restricting overuse of energy including industrial, transport, agriculture, domestic use.
Dr. Janmejoy Gupta spoke about energy conservation at city level, its issues, problems and solutions. He focused on the use of electricity and said that cities are the largest consumers of supplied electricity.

KR Desk