Monthly Progress Report (18) February 2021

1. Major Activities of the Month

The international member of the PI Consultant team who was active in Bangladesh through the month was the financial expert, Dr. Takeshi Kikukawa. He pursued site visits, trainings and capacity development activities with SREDA. The key highlight of such activities is a visit to one of the sub-projects, Meghna Cement Mills Limited.

1.1 Visits to Meghna Cement Factory

(1) Overview
The SREDA management officers and the PI Consultants visited the Meghna Cement Mills Limited (MCML) in Mongla, Khulna along with the officers of IDCOL and EY consultants on 28^th of February. The visit to the factory aimed;

1. To verify the current status of one of the sub-projects that installs the vertical roller mill (VRM);
2. To conduct the technical sessions to exchange information and views on the performance improvement of the cement industry and;
3. To discuss the way forward on the implementation of the sub-project.

The SREDA Chairman opened the meeting with the introductory speech by expressing his gratitude to the management and staff of Meghna Cement for accepting the visit. He introduced the recent development of the EEC projects and stressed the needs for improving the energy efficiency as well as touched the needs for consideration on the global warming issue.

In her speech, Member EE&C discussed the importance of the role of technical improvement and investments into energy efficiency. Such efforts would be expected to enhance the productivity and hence the competitiveness. It is also requested that Meghna Cement keeps the project implementation records in the information management system. The SREDA management hopes, that the revised plan would assist in getting the project back on track by accelerating the testing tasks.

(2) Current status
The VRM was originally scheduled to be commissioning in 2019. The project has been delayed mainly due to the COVID-19. In 2019 while the main facility was established at site, the installation of the other related equipment was delayed. At the time of the factory visit, whereas a part of commissioning tests has been completed, the outstanding tests have been delayed for more than a year in the absence of the foreign engineers in Bangladesh due to the COVID-19.

(3) Exchange of information and views
SREDA presented the current status of the EE&C loan project implementation. The cement industry is one of the most critical sub-sectors and one of the most important end-users in the Project. SREDA also introduced the overview of the SREDA business particularly in connection with the energy efficiency improvement. The participants from the Meghna Cement asked questions on the services and information provided by SREDA.

The PI Consultants made the presentation and discussion on the investment on the VRM. The benefits of the VRM introduction would include the production cost reduction due to the energy saving, the quality improvement of cement production, the possible improvement of the production efficiency, and hence the potential expansion of the market share. It is suggested that the Meghna Cement consider the factors in analysing the financial performance and the projection of corporate finance. The Consultants also made a presentation and discussed the technical trend surrounding the cement industry such as ISO 50001-2018, the utilization of city waste in cement production, development of carbon capture technology and the indication of the technologies (Appendix 18-1).

(4) Schedule from now on
The installation work schedule from now on can be expected as follows.

1. Commissioning test (comprehensive test for all the facilities): July 2021
2. Performance guarantee test (for OPC): August – September 2021
3. Performance guarantee test (for PPC): October – November 2021
4. Completion of contract: November – December 2021

The PI Consultant Team will follow up the discussions at the factory to work on the monitoring and evaluation to assess the performance, the social and environmental considerations to confirm the appropriateness and the public relations activity to demonstrate the achievement of the project. The Team will contact with the Meghna Cement in the coming months.

1.2 Analysis on Measures for Promoting Energy Efficiency in Industries

Dr. Kikukawa reviewed the rules and regulations concerning EE&C promotion in Bangladesh, which are the SREDA Act, Energy Efficiency & Conservation Rules, Labelling and Energy Audit Regulations, Incentive Guidelines. In parallel, he gathered information on the other EE&C promotion financial instruments available in Bangladesh, including Bangladesh Bank Green Transformation Fund (GTF), IDCOL’s use of Green Climate Fund (GCF), ADB’s EE&C Financing Project, AFD and KfW’s fund to analyse the measures already being implemented as well as to identify the possible interventions by SREDA to introduce innovative measures in the future. The PI Consultant Team will continue to support SREDA to be the nodal point of all EE&C promotion activities going on throughout the country, with all relevant information collected and made available at SREDA.

1.3 Project Administration Works

Major functions of the Project Administrator during the month were the followings:

• Support for Dr. Kikukawa’s work resumption;
• Follow-up of the four SOEs report preparations and revisions;
• Arrangements for Meghna Cement Mills visit;
• Following up the TAC meeting and support for SREDA’s
• Collaboration with the awareness-raising (public relations) expert on the development of the pictorial brochure and video clips preparation, newspaper ads, regional seminar planning;
• Liaising the team members with the IFIs;
• Various documentations;
• Coordination among the team members (CSL Soft and CEGIS).

2. Appendices

Appendix 18-1: Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EEC) for Meghna Cement -A follow-up on the Vertical Roller Mill (VRM) 28/Feb/2021