Pakistan’s industrial sector can save 20 percent power by adopting energy efficient measures without any investment or in some cases with nominal investment, an expert said on Tuesday.
Pakistan enjoyed cheap electricity until the 1990’s, which led to huge energy efficiencies among all the power consumers - including industries that need to be immediately addressed, said Bernhard Meyhoefer, principal adviser on the Renewable Energy –Energy Energy Efficiency Project (REEE) government partnership.
Talking to The News after the standing committee meeting at the Sustainable Production Centre (SPC), jointly managed by ASPTMA and REEE, he revealed the preliminary findings of the REEE experts.
REEE aims at improving the energy efficiency by taking industry associations on board, he said, adding that a successful interaction with All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) had resulted in the formation of SPC, which initially would be managed jointly by APTMA and REEE and after three years handed over to APTMA.
Initially, REEE conducted energy audit of 25 textile mills free-of-charge and suggested improvement in their energy management systems that resulted in saving of 10MW, amounting to Rs400 million annual savings for these 25 mills, he said, adding that the total investment of these mills was only Rs50 million.
This project acted as a catalyst for the textile sector as all the mills are now keen to get their mills audited on energy consumption, he said.
Anisul Haq, secretary of APTMA Punjab, said that now the energy audit is being done on commercial basis. The mills, he said, have to pay the energy consultant his fee and APTMA guarantees to pay them back if the savings promised after implementation of audited report do not materialise.
Meyhoefer said that REEE is now concentrating on other industrial sectors. Currently it is working on food, steel melting and mineral industries through their respective associations, he said, adding that industries are generally keen to save energy, but do not have the know how. Energy management systems being implemented by REEE ensure that the conservation remains a sustainable feature of these systems, he added.
He advised the Pakistani industrialists to have a small professional energy management team in their companies. “Energy conservation would save millions and the energy manager should be directly responsible to the chief executive of the organisation,” he added.
Energy price should reflect its production cost, he said, adding that subsidies to electricity consumers are useless. Instead, he said, these subsidies could be diverted to facilitate in the establishment of alternative energy projects. “Germany did the same and now has a robust alternative energy set up.”
Irshad Khan, an executive of REEE, said that the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme has set up 45 micro-hydel projects in Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan that produce 300KW to 1MW for the rural population. The AGRSP plans to establish 103 micro-hydel projects in that area within next 12 months with a cumulative capacity 15MW, he added.
Several micro-hydel projects could also be established on canals in Punjab, said Khan, adding that the Punjab government has either awarded contracts for these projects to the private sector or establishing these projects from its own resources.
