Energy managers appointed at 150 enterprises

Introducing energy management systems to establishments will be coordinated through Energy Managers appointed at establishment level in accordance with the provisions given in Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority Act.

Minister of Power and Energy Champika Ranawaka said yesterday that a gazette notification (No. 1715/12) was issued on 20th July 2011, and it prescribes the qualifications for Energy Managers. “Accordingly, Energy Managers are going to be appointed in industrial and commercial establishments, mainly covering the large scale entities,” the Minister said addressing the certificate award ceremony for the first group of Energy Managers representing 150 establishments yesterday at the BMICH.

Energy is the prime requirement for economic development of any country. However, the whole world is facing daunting arrays of energy and environmental related issues, and therefore there is high global concern towards going for mitigating measures for those challenges. The possible solutions are switching to renewable energy and introducing energy management.

In the Sri Lankan context, the national policy document, Mahinda Chinthana identifies energy as a key area in the journey of national development and a Cabinet sub-committee has been appointed to prepare a roadmap to achieve energy security of the country. While the development of energy resource base is being implemented on the generation side, it is very important to implement energy management activities among energy users. Catering to this, energy management programs have been initiated at national level with a target of achieving energy saving equivalent to 20% of the energy consumption of 2010, by 2020.

Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) of the Ministry of Power & Energy is implementing energy conservation programs at national level towards achieving the above targets. Some of the programs like energy labeling have already achieved successful outcomes.

Through introducing mandatory energy labeling programmer for compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) an annual energy consumption reduction of 375 GWh has been achieved, and more importantly it has led to reduce the national electricity demand by 300 MW showing a national benefit similar to adding a power plant of the particular capacity into the national grid. The energy conservation program implemented by SLSEA encompasses all the sectors including even the transport sector, where the development of fuel economy standards has been initiated.

Industrial and commercial sectors account for around 60% of the national electricity requirement, and also for a considerable part of the oil usage in the country. As far as the electricity consumption in these sectors is concerned, 80% of the consumption is by the large scale establishments, numbering around 1500. Introduction of proper energy management systems mainly to these establishments will greatly support to reduce energy requirements of the country, and the estimated energy saving is 240 GWh per annum. Savings achieved through improved energy systems will support the particular establishments to reduce their cost of production, and through that it will support the sustainability of production on a long term basis.