Promotion of Energy Audit and Conservation of Energy (PEACE): Training Programme

What is the PEACE Training Programme?

The Training Programme is one of the four components of Promotion of Energy Audit and Conservation of Energy (PEACE), a scheme of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department, Government of Tamil Nadu to promote energy efficiency in MSME units.

According to the MSME Policy 2021 guidelines approved in G.O. (Ms) No. 37, MSME Department, dated 6 July 2021, the objective of the training programme is "to enable MSMEs to establish the systems and processes necessary to improve energy performance, energy efficiency, and help reduce energy consumption and costs". Participants are shown how an effective Energy Management System (EnMS) can help their organisation improve energy efficiency, reduce costs and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The key facts are compact:

• Target group, employees, engineers and executives of MSMEs that are willing to undertake an energy audit.
• Batch size, ideally 20 to 25 participants.
• Duration; 3 to 4 days, based on the need and requirement.
• Funding; at least one training programme in each district, at a cost not exceeding Rs 75,000 per training programme.
• Organiser. The General Manager, District Industries Centre, or the Regional Joint Director, Chennai, in coordination with MSME associations, product associations, clusters and other stakeholders.

This component is an institutional activity, not a cash benefit. No money is paid to an enterprise or an individual for attending. The Rs 75,000 is the department's ceiling on what a programme may cost to run. Enterprises looking for a subsidy under PEACE should look instead at the detailed energy audit component and the incentive for implementing audit recommendations.

Who can attend the PEACE training?

You can be nominated if:

• You are an employee, engineer or executive of an MSME located in Tamil Nadu.
• Your enterprise is willing to undertake an energy audit, which is the stated qualification of the target group.
• Your enterprise nominates you and there is room in the batch of 20 to 25.
• You are within reach of the district where the programme is held. Where cluster-focused or sector-focused programmes are organised, MSMEs from neighbouring districts may also be included.

You are not eligible, and cannot apply for a cash benefit, if:

• You are looking for a cash subsidy. This component funds the programme, not the participant, and no reimbursement is payable to an enterprise for sending staff.
• You are an individual with no MSME employer. The target group is defined by employment in an MSME.
• Your enterprise wants the training but the district batch is full. The next programme in that district or a neighbouring cluster programme is the answer.

Because no money passes to the applicant, there is no eligibility annexure, no income test and no Udyam-linked entitlement here. Nomination is administrative.

What is taught in the programme?

The guidelines require tailor-made content conforming to the requirement of the MSMEs or the cluster, and give a working list of what such programmes are built around:

Electrical systems, maximum demand control, power factor control, servo motors, transformers, pumps, fans, air-conditioning units, chillers, DG sets, lighting systems and air compressors.

Thermal systems: boilers, furnaces, driers, thermic fluid systems, heat exchangers and steam systems.

Experience sharing by other enterprises must also be encouraged, which in practice is the most useful part of the course for a small unit: hearing from a comparable factory in the same cluster what a variable frequency drive or a condensate recovery loop actually saved on a monthly bill.

Faculty are drawn preferably from bodies promoted by government departments — the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), India SME Technology Services Ltd (SIDBI) and the National Productivity Council (NPC), and BEE accredited energy auditors and managers with rich experience in energy audits, energy management and conservation, as well as BEE-empanelled energy audit firms, may also be engaged.

How to apply to send your staff to a PEACE training programme

1. Contact the General Manager, District Industries Centre of your district, or the Regional Joint Director of Industries and Commerce, Chennai, and ask when the PEACE training programme for the district is scheduled.
2. Ask your MSME association, product association or cluster body as well. Programmes are organised in coordination with them and they usually circulate the notice first.
3. Nominate 1 or 2 employees, engineers or executives in writing on the enterprise's letterhead, attaching the Udyam Registration Certificate, and confirm the batch has room.
4. Send the nominated staff for the full 3 to 4 days, with the unit's electricity connection details and recent consumption data so that the discussion is grounded in your own plant's numbers.
5. Collect the participation certificate and put the learning to use. The next step is a detailed energy audit by a BEE-accredited auditor.

How the training connects to the money components of PEACE

PEACE has four components, and the training is the second rung of a ladder:

A unit that sends its maintenance engineer to the training, then commissions a detailed audit, then implements the recommendations, can draw both money components in sequence. The audit report is the common document, and the timing rules are strict: one year from completion of the audit for the audit subsidy, and, for the implementation subsidy, after three months from implementation and within one year of implementation or two years of the audit, whichever is earlier.

Practical points enterprises get wrong

• Expecting a payment for attending. The training component reimburses nothing to the enterprise.
• Sending an administrative staff member rather than the person who runs the boiler, the compressor or the electrical panel. The content is technical.
• Sending one person for one day of a three-day course, which defeats the Energy Management System sequence the programme is built around.
• Waiting for a state-level announcement. Programmes are organised district by district through associations and clusters, so the District Industries Centre is the office to ask.
• Treating the training as a substitute for the audit. Only a BEE-accredited auditor's detailed audit qualifies for the subsidy.

Key dates

There is no application deadline for this component. The guidelines require at least one training programme in each district, and additional cluster or sector-focused programmes may be organised where demand exists. Enrolment closes when the batch of 20 to 25 is full, so the practical rule is to register the nomination as soon as the district office or the association circulates the notice.

Help and contacts

• General Manager, District Industries Centre of your district, the organiser and the office to ask about scheduling.
• Regional Joint Director of Industries and Commerce, Chennai, for Chennai district enterprises.
• msmeonline.tn.gov.in. The Incentives section carries the PEACE eligibility pages, the list of documents for the audit and implementation claims, and the entrepreneur Grievance login.
• MSME associations, product associations and cluster bodies, which the guidelines name as co-organisers of the programmes.
• Bureau of Energy Efficiency, for the list of accredited energy auditors and empanelled audit firms you will need after the training.

There is no fee for attending a PEACE training programme, and no intermediary can secure a seat in a batch. Nominations go through the District Industries Centre.

How to check your application status

The training programme is a nomination, not a submitted application, so there is no online tracking number or portal dashboard to log into. Status is confirmed through the office that runs the batch:

• Call or visit the General Manager, District Industries Centre of your district (or the Regional Joint Director of Industries and Commerce for Chennai enterprises) and ask whether your nomination letter has been received and whether a seat in the current batch of 20 to 25 has been confirmed for your nominated employee.
• Ask your MSME association, product association or cluster body if they routed the nomination on your behalf. They usually hold the confirmed participant list before the district office finalises it.
• Confirm the batch date and venue in writing, by phone or email, once a seat is confirmed, since the 3 to 4 day schedule can shift by a few days depending on faculty availability from PCRA, SIDBI or the National Productivity Council.
• After attending, follow up for the participation certificate if it is not handed out on the last day. The District Industries Centre or the organising association is the office to approach; there is no separate certificate-tracking system.
• There is no helpline number published for this component specifically. General queries and grievances on PEACE can be raised through the Grievance login on msmeonline.tn.gov.in, which routes the query to the department for a response, though this is meant for policy or eligibility questions rather than day-to-day batch scheduling.

Because no money changes hands with the participant, there is no disbursement stage to track after the training. The status that matters is simply whether a seat was confirmed and whether the batch has been held.

Common reasons nominations are not accepted

Since this is a seat-based nomination rather than a scored application, most rejections are really seat or eligibility mismatches rather than paperwork failures. The ones that come up in practice:

• The batch for that district is already full. Programmes run for a fixed batch of 20 to 25, and nominations that arrive after that number is reached have to wait for the next scheduled programme in the district or a neighbouring cluster programme. Fix: nominate as soon as the district office or association circulates the notice, rather than after the batch has closed.
• The nominated person is not employed by an MSME. The target group is defined as employees, engineers and executives of MSMEs, so a nomination for someone outside that employment relationship, such as a consultant with no employment link to the unit, is turned away. Fix: nominate directly employed staff and attach the Udyam Registration Certificate to establish the employer link.
• The enterprise sends an administrative or non-technical staff member instead of someone who actually handles the boiler, compressor, electrical panel or utility bills. Organisers running a technical curriculum on electrical and thermal systems have discretion to prioritise seats for technical staff when demand exceeds the batch size. Fix: nominate the engineer or executive who owns energy use decisions on the shop floor.
• The nomination reaches the wrong office. Enterprises sometimes write to the state MSME Department headquarters or the Bureau of Energy Efficiency directly, when scheduling and enrolment are handled at the district level by the General Manager, District Industries Centre. Fix: route the nomination through the district office or the Regional Joint Director for Chennai, not a state or central authority.
• The enterprise is looking for a cash payment and treats the non-response as a rejection. No subsidy or reimbursement is payable for attending, so a query framed as a claim for money under this component will not be processed because there is nothing to disburse. Fix: apply for the detailed energy audit subsidy or the implementation incentive instead, which are the components that carry a cash benefit.
• Partial attendance disqualifies the participant from the certificate, even where the initial nomination was accepted. Sending staff for only part of the 3 to 4 day course means the Energy Management System content is incomplete, and organisers may withhold the participation certificate as a result. Fix: commit the nominated staff to the full duration before confirming the seat.