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Strengthening Governance of India's Appliance Efficiency Standards and Labeling Program

by Bharath Jairaj, Anjana Agarwal, Tara Parthasarathy and Sarah Martin - April 2016

This issue brief examines how improved governance can help make India’s appliance efficiency standards and labelling program more successful. We focus particularly on standard setting, program implementation, and monitoring and verification through the lens of transparency, accountability, participation, and capacity.

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Key Findings

This issue brief provides pointed conclusions and recommendations that the Indian government and Bureau of Energy Efficiency might consider in order to maximize the effectiveness of the S&L program. The recommendations are primarily as follows:

  • Increased transparency around selection of products, setting standards, impact assessment measures, and program budgets
  • Greater accountability in implementation of the program, particularly on the roles and responsibilities of BEE and other agencies involved
  • Increased participation of different stakeholders in monitoring and evaluation of the program, and
  • Strengthening institutional, human, technical, and financial capacity of the S&L program.

Executive Summary

Demand for electricity is increasing rapidly in India due to economic growth and urbanization. The growing residential sector offers the opportunity to achieve significant energy efficiency gains, which will be critical given India’s widening demand-supply gap. One such initiative that has been introduced by the central government to mitigate energy demand growth in the residential sector is a standards and labeling (S&L) program, managed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency. However, although the S&L program has been in operation since 2006, its potential to reduce electricity demand has not been fully realized; awareness and use of more efficient appliances remain low, and efficient appliances are reportedly unavailable in parts of the country.

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