1. Activities and Achievements of the Month
1.1 Summary of Progress
A notable progress during the month was the issuing of the 29th non-objection certificate (NOC) by SREDA for a sub-project under IDCOL named “Shanta Forum”, by Shanta Holdings Limited. The NOC is commemorative in that it is the very first genuine Component II sub-project in the commercial / building sector (apart from those NOCs which included some building equipment such as BEMS and lifts). Major portion of the loan will be allocated for the introduction of the heat reflective glass, which contributes to reducing air conditioning electricity consumption in buildings especially during summer period. The equipment list also included centrifugal chiller and water-cooled chiller for air conditioning, as well as permanent magnet motor driven lift (elevator). This NOC issuing has also contributed to diversification of the EE&C equipment funded through the Project.
Another step forward during the month was the fund disbursement from BIFFL to one of its ongoing sub-projects. The disbursement by BIFFL was the first in the recent 16 months, marking the reactivation of the Project implementation under the new management. The recipient of this fund was Asia Composite Mills Ltd., which is utilising the fund to introduce automatic winders with balloon controller in the expansion area of its existing factory. It also indicates that the businesses are returning to normal after a serious and unexpected close-down of the global economy due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It is expected that the other sub-projects will also resume their investment and operation activities.
National and International Members
On the final working day of the month, the Project Manager of the PI Consultant Team, Ms Mari Iwata started for Dhaka, on her 30 hours itinerary through Doha, marking the long-awaited resumption of the international members’ activities in Bangladesh. The move was in response to an official letter received from SREDA stating the necessity and urgency for the PI Consultant team’s international members to be physically present in Bangladesh. The visiting international member will have to undergo two weeks’ self-quarantine before appearing at SREDA, and will also do the same after returning to their home country. The international members, during these self-quarantine periods, will still be fully engaged in the Project implementation work remotely from their restricted locations. With the resumption of the core members’ activities, it is expected that Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting, the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meting, and Project Coordination Committee (PCC) meeting will be convened in due course.
The PI Consultant Team’s national experts continued to play their roles mostly at the Project Office in SREDA premises. Communications with the SREDA PIU members were mostly discussions at the Project Office, with no out-of-office activities conducted during the month.
1.2 Technical briefings on newly-proposed eligible EE&C and communication with major international textile & garment retailer to promote EE&C in their product supply chain
Technical briefings on the newly-proposed eligible technologies and equipment list continued, focusing on air conditioners, endless bar rolling, and bipolar electrolyser. The PI Consultant Team’s energy audit experts, contributed by liaising SREDA PIU with the international members of the team, and by providing documents and explanations. Similar information exchange was conducted for the industry sector with a major international textile and garment retailer. The PI Consultant Team has been in regular contact with the company’s local representative since the beginning of the year. The company has been expressing their expectation for the earliest inclusion of the proposed equipment into the eligibility list for the Project.
1.3 Support for NOC request processing (including eligibility checking)
Following the eligibility checking process which has been going on since the previous month, it was on 12th November 2020 that a NOC for Shanta Forum was issued, in time for the year’s institutional decision-making opportunity for IDCOL. The technical documents submitted from IDCOL on the heat reflective glass showed that the product to be installed in the sub-project building was a custom-made model. For this reason, readily available catalogues and website information were found to be insufficient for SREDA to be checking the technical eligibility, and therefore the appropriateness of the manufacturer’s declaration became the focus of the discussion. Further, with some of the air conditioning equipment specifications becoming pending issues, the PI Consultant Team conducted an internal training session on the trend and the latest technologies of building air conditioning. The consultants for IDCOL and BIFFL were also invited to the session. Dr Kimio Yoshida, the team’s technical head, convened the session based on his expertise on building energy efficiency.
1.4 Project Visibility Improvement
The visibility of the Project activities, so far, has been limited to few outdated information on SREDA’s current official website. The PI Consultant Team has been discussing with SREDA on the necessity for a project website to be created on SREDA’s website, with more updated and detailed information. The Team’s Project Administrator, Mr Md. Jahangir Hasan Talukder, worked on proposing an interface and contents of the Project’s official webpage. The site is expected to contain explanations of the Project structure, its achievements, participants and referential documents. It will also include relevant basic information such as the presentations on the national energy balance, energy intensity calculation and energy management related data. Visual introductions of some of the sub-projects are also planned to be linked onto the Project webpage. This visibility improvement is regarded as one of the highest priority work items to be pursued by the team also during the upcoming months.
1.5 Energy Conservation Calculation and Standardisation
The Team, during the Project effect calculation work, found that calorific value of some of the energy sources will have to be revised every year to match the data source. The need for annual revision is essential for thermal power generation, and optional for coal, gas and oil. The team decided to improve MIS-DASH to be adopting this requirement into the system as soon as possible. The long-awaited energy saving calculation for sewing machines finally concluded when lacking information was obtained from JUKI, the manufacturer.
1.6 Contribution to SREDA’s official publication
In response to an offer from the SREDA Chairman, two of the PI Consultant Team’s international members prepared an academic introduction paper on the integrated national energy balance presentation method. The paper is expected to be published in December.
1.7 Project Administration Works
The major portion of project administration was devoted to facilitating the communications between SREDA PIU and the PI Consultant Team’s international members with an aim to expedite their field work resumption. Following the team leader’s and the project manager’s expression of their readiness to resume their field work from the beginning of November, the Project Administrator bridged their communications with SREDA to clarify the steps and process required to have it realised. On 2nd November, a list of the issues to be discussed was sent out to SREDA. Then, it was on 18th November that a remote discussion with the PD took place, to finalise all the immediate arrangements to be made to have the international consultant members coming back to Bangladesh to fully perform their activities.
2. Appendices
There is no appendix to this month’s progress report.