Mahindra Heavy Engines (MHEL) has become the first Indian manufacturing unit in the country and only the third in the world to double its energy productivity, which would have significant impact on its energy costs. This was achieved by the compnay’s unit in Chakan which has become energy smart. This unit has capacity to make 860 engines a day and makes captive supplies to Mahindra SUVs, trucks and power gensets in the 1.2-9.3 litre range. With this initiative, the company has achieved 21% reduction in energy costs apart from the positive impact on the environment through efficient energy consumption.
MHEL achieved this record in four years. The company had committed to achieve efficiency levels as part of the Climate Group EP 100 programme in alliance with the Climate Group. The company chose 2016 as the baseline against the required base year 2005.
At the group level, there are around 1,800 energy projects going on or completed and investments of around Rs 55 crore has been made. Annual savings of around Rs 75 crore are expected with these initiatives. In addition, the Mahindra Group has invested around Rs 54 crore in 6.3 MW wind energy and 14 MW of solar energy funded through opex and partnerships to expand its energy sourcing from RE.
MHEL achieved this through a combination of technologies from energy-efficient lighting, air-conditioning, motors and appliances, usage of alternate fuels and smart metering for real time monitoring of energy consumption along with other natural resources. The company achieved manufacturing efficiency improvement through cycle time reduction, production shift optimisation, resource optimisation and built flexibility in the process to avoid addition of equipment.
Vijay Kalra, CEO, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers, and chief of manufacturing operation, automotive sector, M&M, said that around 60-70% of the variable cost they incur was energy cost. As energy price is going up, this kind of reduction has an impact on the bottom line, Kalra said. Though their volumes were going up, the gap between daily requirements and capacity was reducing y-o-y and daily requirement can be met in a single shift, he said.
Anirban Ghosh, chief sustainability officer, Mahindra Group, said 20 Mahindra Group companies had signed up for these energy productivity and renewable energy programme and 12 companies are on their way to achieve targets approved as they look to become carbon neutral by 2040. Ghosh said they recently achieved a `100-crore benefit by achieving zero waste landfill across 14 sites at group companies. They have also grown their green revenues from their green portfolio to the tune of $400 million.
According to Atul Mudaliar, senior manager, Climate Group, there are eight Indian companies have committed to achieve improvements in their energy productivity under the EP 100 programme and five of these are Mahindra Group companies and the other three are Dalmia Cement, UltraTech Cement and Godrej Industries. The other Mahindra companies signed up for EP 100 include, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers and Swaraj Engines. Mudaliar said five Indian companies part of the Renewable Energy (RE 100) members committed to sourcing 100% RE and they include Tata Motors, Infosys, Dalmia Cement and Hatsun Agro Products. Six companies are part of their EV-100 (electric vehicle fleet and charging sites) programme. These include SBI, Wipro, Bounce, Shuttl and two discoms in Delhi —BSES Rajdhani Power and BSES Yamuna Power.
