1. Major Activities of the Month
January 2021 started with the presence of both Team Leader and Project Manager of the PI Consultant Team in Dhaka. It was also the first time for SREDA top management, the Chairman and the Member EE&C to be working in full collaboration with the PI Consultant Team. With the physical presence of the PI Consultant Team the first Technical Advisory Committee meeting, one on-site inspection and four factory visits for scope enhancement study were conducted.
1.1 First Technical Advisory Committee Meeting
It was on 7th January that the official letter nominating the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) members was issued by SREDA. Three days after, on 10th January, the first meeting notice was distributed to the TAC members. Further three days later, on 13th January 2021, from 10:30 am, the first meeting was held, with most of the members physically present at Mohanada Conference Room, SREDA, while two advisory members attended online. The topic was on the proposed revision of the Project’s eligible technology and equipment list, with focus on the addition of technologies to widen the scope of the Project loan. After the discussions, it was decided that SREDA will receive further comments, based on which a final decision on the eligibility list revision will be made, then to be reflected on the business process manuals and submitted to JICA for concurrence.
The PI Consultant Team contributed to this achievement by preparing and proposing the revision of the Project’s eligible technology and equipment list. The revision proposal was prepared mostly in response to various requests received from the IFIs, industries and the equipment suppliers. Market survey and scope enhancement studies which the PI Consultant Team has been conducting, were also the primary inputs to the proposed revision (for example, visits to a steel mill in Chattogram and a chemical factory in Narayanganj). Calculations on the fund demand and also the potential energy saving were also conducted by the PI Consultant team to exhibit the appropriateness of the proposed revision. These works which took few months, were initially done by the end of March 2020, but were continued for elaboration until June 2020, taking advantage of the remote working environment brought about by the office closures due to COVID-19 outbreak. Six months after the proposal was submitted to SREDA PIU, it was finally discussed among the experts at the first TAC meeting.
1.2 On-site Inspection
In December 2020, IDCOL and BIFFL reported to SREDA about the recent progress with its sub-projects. Among the reported, SREDA found that SF19052101 is the latest of to become an authorised sub-project on the MIS, and has not yet been inspected in the past, thus the most suitable for an on-site inspection to be conducted. The inspection was arranged by BIFFL, and conducted on 6th January 2021, with the participation of Member EE&C Ms Farzana Mamtaz and the Project Director Mr Rezaul Hoq. Among the 35 automatic winders planned to be installed, 7 have just started their operation, while 28 more, to be installed in the new expansion, were yet to be procured.
On the occasion of the on-site inspection, a walk-through audit was also conducted by the PI Consultant Team. The findings and the recommendations from the audit are as in the report presentation (Appendix 17-1). The highlight of the energy audit was the comparison of energy efficiency between the old and the new equipment. The new machine was confirmed to be 17.5% more energy efficient compared with the old machine that was introduced back in 2005.
1.3 Visits to Four State-Owned Enterprises for Scope Enhancement Survey
The PI Consultants were given an opportunity to present the Project activities to the Ministry of Industries, specifically, to the two industries under the Ministry, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) and Bangladesh Steel & Engineering Corporation (BSEC). The Member EE&C’s expectation was to find a way for the Project to contribute to the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which have been playing an essential role for the development of the country, to become more competitive. After some discussions with BCIC and BSEC, it was decided to arrange factory visits to four of the SOEs. These were Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitaryware Factory (BISF), Eastern Cables, DAP Fertilizer, and Eastern Tubes. The survey team was formulated, comprised of SREDA officials and the PI Consultant Team members. There were mainly three aims for conducting survey visits to the SOEs:
(1) To explore a possibility to identify EE&C technologies to be added to the Project eligible technology and equipment list;
(2) To improve energy audit skills by reaching out to new industry sectors;
(3) To seek for possibilities to support the SOEs to improve energy efficiency.
The survey team decided to conduct a simple audit of the factories with the three aims in mind, to be producing presentation-type reports for each visit.
[1] Ceramics Factory (Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitaryware Factory)
The visit to BISF was conducted on 16th January 2021. The issues found with the kilns in the factory were complex, therefore the PI Consultant Team had to contact the factory management for several times and revisit the site again to check the situation. A report preparation also took a long time, with many recommendations for improvements with minimal investments (Appendix 17-2).
[2] Cables Factory
The cables factory was located in Chattogram. The survey team found that the energy consumption for cable manufacturing is not significant, but also that there are rooms for becoming more energy efficiency by introducing modern processing equipment with controls on tension, temperature and speed. The team also proposed introducing efficiency indicators such as production energy intensity. It was also suggested to manage the production-related data in a comparable form with the energy consumption (Appendix 17-3).
[3] Fertilizer Factory (DAP Fertilizer Company)
The third factory to be visited, DAP Fertilizer Company was also situated in Chattogram, but on the other side of Kamaphuli River. It specialises in the production of diammonium phosphate fertilizer by reaction of ammonia with phosphoric acid. As it is procuring ammonia from exterior, the energy consumption for the process is only in a limited scale. The factory was also unique in that its electricity and steam are being supplied from an adjacent factory. The issue of high energy consumption at this factory was also complex that the survey team had to communicate continuously with the factory, even after the visit to find out about some of the conditions. It was concluded that the peculiarity in the utility source should be reconsidered, in order to improve its energy efficiency (Appendix 17-4).
The survey team also acknowledges the need to observe a urea fertilizer factory with ammonia production process, where a significant amount of electricity demand is present.
[4] Lighting Equipment Factory (Eastern Tubes)
This, more than half-century old factory was originally built for producing fluorescent tubes, but is recently shifting its production to LED assembling. The production line is modern and the installation was found to be appropriately done from the viewpoint of energy efficiency. As the energy consumption itself is already minimal, the recommendations were rather on the utility sides (Appendix 17-5).
The PI Consultant Team will follow up the discussions and recommendations raised during their audit and report preparation. The Team will also consider enhancing the loan eligible equipment which may contribute to improving energy efficiency in these sectors observed; namely, ceramics, cables, fertilizer and lightings.
1.5 Introductory briefing for SREDA Chairman
The PI Consultant Team, with the physical presence of the team leader and the project manager, was now well prepared to boost their Project implementation consultancy service for SREDA. To exhibit this commitment, an introductory presentation to the SREDA Chairman and Member EE&C, was conducted on 5th January 2021. The presentation, first of all, reviewed the Project progress so far, and focused on immediate actions required to restart the Project implementation. (Appendix 17-6).
1.6 Project Administration Works
Major functions of the Project Administrator during the month were the followings:
- Support for resuming the international team members’ activities;
- Arrangements for on-site inspections, energy audit, SOEs visits;
- Preparations and following up of TAC meeting
- Collaboration with the awareness-raising (public relations) expert on the development of the pictorial brochure and video clips;
- Liaising the team members with the IFIs;
- Various documentations;
- Coordination among the team members (especially communications for CSL Soft, and CEGIS).
2. Appendices
Appendix 17-1: Energy Efficiency and Conservation Promotion Financing Project
Energy audit and on-site Training for Asia Composite Mills Ltd.
January 2021
Appendix 17-2: Energy Efficiency in Industries Scope Enhancement
Walk-through Audit at Bangladesh Insulator and Sanitaryware Factory Ltd. (BISF) Conducted on 16/Jan/2021
Appendix 17-3: Energy Efficiency in Industries Scope Enhancement
(Eastern Cables Limited) 17/Jan/2021
Appendix 17-4: Energy Efficiency in Industries Scope Enhancement
(DAP Fertilizer Company Ltd.) 18/Jan/2021
Appendix 17-5: Energy Efficiency in Industries Scope Enhancement
(Eastern Tubes Ltd.) 19/Jan/2021
Appendix 17-6: Energy Efficiency & Conservation Promotion Financing Project – Targets and Immediate Actions – 5 January 2021