Ministry of Power, Government of India has selected Tata Steel for the above award in the Integrated Steel Plants Sector. The Award will be given by Hon'ble Vice President of India on 14th December 2002 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

The energy cost of TATA STEEL is about 30% of the cost of steel production. It is imperative to reduce the energy cost for competitive steel making. TATA STEEL addressed the issues related to energy with greater focus since the worldwide oil crisis of 1973. Systematic approach was adopted to identify all potential areas of energy saving & those were categorized for short-term & long-term action plans. In 1980-81, as a corporate approach to energy conservation; a structural 10-year energy plan was formulated.

Based on the energy plan, the energy saving measures & the technologies implemented progressively at TATA STEEL has yielded good results & the reduction in the plant energy consumption was achieved @ 1.1% per annum i.e. from 11.710 Gcal/tcs in FY '74 to 8.717 Gcal/tcs in FY '97.

Considering the various changes in the plant operation & the slow rate of reduction in plant especially energy consumption after FY '92, it was felt necessary to re-focus on energy efficiency in process step to accelerate the rates of reduction in the plant Specific Energy Consumption. In FY '97, Benchmarking exercise on energy consumption with the IISI ( International Iron & Steel Institute ) reference plant was done & a comprehensive update plan with necessary enablers was formulated to reduce the plant specific energy consumption to a targeted value of 6.8 Gcal/tcs.

All these efforts & improved operating practices at various stage of steel making has resulted in reduction of plant specific energy consumption from 8.717 Gcal/tcs in FY '97 to 7.054 Gcal/tcs in FY '03 up to Nov.'02 i.e. a reduction of over 3.1% per annum.