MUMBAI: In line with the developed world that has strict norms for energy-efficiency, India will soon implement star-rating schemes under Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) for all buildings that have high-energy consumption.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)— the nodal regulatory agency for energy conservation under the ministry of power — will issue specific ECBC star-rating norms for all existing, new residential and commercial buildings, including hotels, hospitals, malls, shopping complexes, educational institutions and IT parks with average electricity consumption of 500 kw or more.

The government has already mandated ECBC norms for state-owned buildings, and is also likely to make it mandatory for private commercial buildings and luxury residential by 2011, according to government officials. “If the scheme is implemented strictly, the power consumption could be reduced by 25-30%,” said an official connected with the matter, who didn’t want to be named.

ECBC, mandated by the Energy Conservation Act of 2001 and issued in 2007, is a document that specifies energy performance requirements for all commercial buildings in India, with an electrical connected load of 500 kw or more.

Under this code, BEE had launched star-rating schemes for office buildings and IT sector’s business process outsoucing, operating round the clock with high-energy consumption. Further, it is in the process of introducing similar provisions for other high-end energy consumers such as luxury hotels, malls and IT parks.

“Currently, the scheme for official buildings is on voluntary basis and the mission is to create a market pool for such buildings. So far, about 100 buildings across the country have been star-rated by the bureau,” said Ajay Mathur, director-general of BEE. The first 100 buildings have been certified without any charges. Usually, a building owner has to pay a fee of Rs 1 lakh per building as a processing fee.

“Similar scheme for the other high-end buildings will be launched in a phased manner and by the end of this year we plan to introduce rating norms for all categories,” Mr Mathur added.

Pankaj Dharkar, president of Indian Green Building Council and former president of a US-based global constancy for energy conservation, said the process for the building coding could take another two years, as it has to be adopted by each of the individual states to become mandatory and would require legislative approval.