Monthly Progress Report (38) October 2022

Major Activities of the Month

During the month of September, the PI consultant team actively conducted work including the key activities summarized below.

1. Awareness raising activities

1.1 The 24th Bangladesh Power Expo 2022

As a new approach for this project’s awareness raising activities, The PI consultant team participated at the 24th Power Bangladesh Expo 2022, an international convention organised by CEMS. The event took place at Hall 1 of the International Convention City Bashundhara for three consecutive days, from 13th to 15th of October. The estimated number of visitors for the expo was over 20,000 people, with a number of entrepreneurs and business owners among them. The event hosted 200 exhibitors from a variety of countries.

For the convention, the PI consultant team prepared an information booth to offer basic information about the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Promotion Financing Project through the distribution of brochures, projection of promotion videos and the exhibition of human size information panels, as shown in the pictures below. In individual cases, one-on-one consulting was provided to visitors who were interested in more specific information, to consider potential loans for their businesses. Generally, interest in the loan was high with a strong demand from a wide range of industry sectors that are in some extent not fully covered in this financing scheme, such as agriculture, plastic processing, dairy and building, just to name a few.

Additionally, to the information booth, the PI consultant team did also organise a workshop on “Energy Efficiency and Conservation Opportunities for present & future industries”. The workshop was designed as a side event to the ongoing convention and held on 13th October 2022.

In the first half, the workshop’s aim was to give a basic overview to Bangladesh’ situation on energy efficiency and conservation combined with a brief introduction to the EECPFP. The second half of the event focused on promoting the importance of energy auditing, followed by real life examples of the oil and gas sector. Deputy Director Mohammad Syed Aminur Rahman gave the concluding remarks. 

1.2 CCCI seminar

The PI consultants were invited to participate the seminar on “Two-step loan program for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Promotion Financing Project (EECPFP) funded by JICA” co-organized by The Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), Bangladesh Center of Excellence (BCE), and JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) on October 4th, 2022. The seminar intended to provide information on the ongoing EECPFP financing and exchange the views on the financing opportunities.

More than sixty top management and engineers joined the seminar from the member corporations of the CCCI. The other participants included from the relevant organizations such as Bangladesh Bank, Export processing/ economic zones, and others in Chattogram area.

The agenda covered Energy Efficiency as First fuel, Overview of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Promotion Financing Project, Case study on multiple benefits of energy efficiency, and Introduction of Activities of JETRO Dhaka. Most of the participants were interested in the financing program, asking questions, providing comments, and expressed keen interests on mobilizing funds for energy efficiency. 

CCCI, the first and largest chamber of commerce in Bangladesh with more than 7,000 members, was also very interested in the financing program, and have been cooperative with the Japanese business for years through the Japan Desk established within CCCI to help coordinate the Bangladesh-Japan business development. 

Some of the common views expressed by the participants were;

• The effectiveness of the loan program has been demonstrated by the current achievements.
• While the loan offers favorable terms to end-users, the conditions could be improved. (for instance, if CCCI could borrow and manage the funds for serving the member companies.)
• The processing timeline is crucial for borrowing and investing. (The current loan performance may be improved.)
• The participants wish continued and close collaboration with the PI consultants IDCOL and BIFFL. 

The PI consultants exchanged the contact information with the interested top managers of the companies. IDCOL had an inquiry from a company that participated in the seminar and started business talk. PI consultants will also follow up on the seminar in the coming months. 

1.3 Brochure and video preparation

A pictorial brochure and video clips were created to introduce the success stories from EECPFP and to encourage more Bangladeshi companies to join the EECPFP. Film shooting started back in March 2022, and finally the editing was completed in October 2022. The video clips were edited and finalised for all nine sub-project owners after some corrections in the captions. All nine plus a shorter version for one of the video clip files have now been completed in mp4 (universal) and mov (to be used on Apple QuickTime program) container format files. These videos will be uploaded on the Project website (through youtube) and also on the respective implementing financial institutions’ (IFIs’) websites. The brochure proofs, after editing the figures and charts, have also been finalized, submitted in ai, eps and pdf format files. The submissions finally conclude the agreement with Charuprangon, the contents developers. The videos and the printing materials will proactively be used in the upcoming workshops and seminars where industries, as the potential users of the Project loan fund, will be involved. 

Nine video clips on each sub-project owners’ interview, and an integrated brochure were created. They spoke about the merits of installing the energy-efficient equipment through the EECPFP. Each video clip lasts about 3 or 4 minutes. Information on these nine companies is as follows: 

The brochure and the video clips provide information about the benefits of the installation of energy-efficient equipment. In particular, they have been able to not only reduce energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and energy costs, but also increase productivity. The brochure also presents the business owners’ interviews about some positive impacts of installed energy-efficient equipment through the EECPFP. Furthermore, the brochure provides information about the equipment they have installed, and estimated energy-saving effects of the equipment under the EECPFP. The contents of each company page are; Company Profile; Management Message in Bangla and in English; Equipment introduced through the EECPFP, and Project Benefits. 

2. Promoting Energy Efficiency & Conservation in the Industries

2.1 Chemical industry

Basic Chemical Industry plays very important role to support various industries in general. The sub-project owner chemical company is one of the major soda (NaOH and Cl) manufacturing companies in Bangladesh and has supported textile and pulp industries primarily.

Review of Samuda Facility performance was conducted on 16th October. Following is noticeable observation from the visit:

• Already introduced the latest electrolyser by Asahi Kasei (Type NCZ). 
• Introduced the latest DCS (ABB) to monitor and control the operation and performance and secure safety by incorporating interlock system as part of the DCS. 
• Piping system is colour coded and meeting international safety standard.
• All the key process data is kept in the computer system and allow to make comparison with old Electrolysers. 
• Materials used for soda industry is mostly noble for process piping, i.e., expensive. Tight security system is in place.
• They are aware that maintenance and regular inspection can extend the life time of the piping material and successfully extended from 4 years to 5 years. 

They have posted the operators at key process points (rotary machinery) or critical unit to secure the safety and operation. 

In general, the company performance is satisfactory, although the team did not review the current steam system performance, in view of minimizing the avoidable system loss. We recommend the company to carry out periodic energy auditing and review the heat balance to minimize the avoidable system loss. 

2.2 Building sector (Golden procedure for energy audit)

The golden procedure proposed by EECPFP has been reviewed by conducting actual energy auditing, starting with filling EEC performance check sheet. By cooperating with E4TECH, data sheet, architectural drawings, equipment list by specialist are checked and additional question sheet for interviewing was provided.

At the 1st site visit, the EECPFP explained visit purpose and data collection requests to owners w/ interviewing paper, getting information establishment background, future expansion plan, business targets, international exchanging program, operational organizations, etc.  Substation situation was carefully checked for understanding entire power supply system.

The EECPFP conducted walkthrough survey for buildings and facilities (central chillers, primary HVAC station, power distribution panels, classroom, common space, etc.), reviewing data sheet, architectural drawings, equipment list by specialist with discussing among team members.

Internal meeting was conducted for reviewing issues for detail survey measurement.

• Checking measurement instrument function
• Discussing target setting for measurement
• Planning measurement schedule and strategies 
• Providing detail energy advisory visit plan 
• Measurement plan for power consumption

For the 2nd detailed auditing, needed measurement equipment was ready for collecting total daily power consumption data as well as HVAC consumption.  The assumed ratio of energy consumption for each item had been justified with collected data. 

The building as the subject of the energy audit is the flagship project of a renowned developer company group. This commercial facility has already achieved its place as the country’s first LEED Platinum Certified building and is considered to be the only “Green & Intelligent Infrastructure” with a panoramic view of Gulshan Avenue.

The golden procedure was effectively followed with one of the international flagship project energy auditing in Bangladesh.  This commercial facility has already achieved its place as the country’s first LEED Platinum Certified building and is considered as the only “Green & Intelligent Infrastructure.”

The EECPFP has certified the efficiency of the golden procedure with three different building types and will announce its importance for promoting energy saving.

3. Support for GoB Training

The PI Consultant Team contributed to the 4th, 5th, 6th, and the 7th batches of trainings conducted by SREDA for the energy sector public corporations, titled “Energy Efficiency & Conservation Opportunities in Energy and Mass Balance”. For each batch, there were approximately 30 participants from various energy and power sectors. There were two topics of contributions from the PI Consultant Team: (1) and (2) National Energy Balance – International and Bangladesh Context. The contributions were As most of the participants were from the utilities, their topic of interest was mainly on the actual process and tips for energy saving within their daily operations. The PI consultant Team’s presentation, which was mostly focused on the policy makers capacity development may not have been sufficiently addressed to the actual audience.  

4. Facilitating the Project Loan Utilisation

4.1 Observing issuance of NOCs

There were no NOCs issued during the month. Two new NOC requests were submitted, one each from respective IFI. As the result, as of the end of October, there are 15 NOC requests pending at SREDA. 

4.2 Advisory for the IFIs on the Sub-project Monitoring Processes

The PI Consultant in charge of loan monitoring visited both IFIs for interview on loan performance. The points include following agenda:

This agenda covers contents of Project Completion Repot. This time PI Consultant interviewed mainly from S.N. 1 to S.N.4 and S.N. 8. Most impressionable point was what BIFFL mentioned. For BIFFL, EECPFP was the first lending facility with international partner. With learning on facility and suggestion by PI Consultant team, BIFFL learned much and expanded scope of lending.

At monthly meeting with IFIs, PI consultants pointed out monitoring after disbursement which includes Document and Evidence on Purchasing, and Installation and site visit. Based on MIS, such number are few compared with the disbursement cases. So, PI consultant urged to conduct monitoring and to input in MIS.

4.3 Monthly Monitoring Meeting

The monthly monitoring meeting for October was held on Wednesday 26th October at BIFFL board meeting room with the presence of SREDA, IDCOL and BIFFL PIU members as well as the PI Consultant Team members. The meeting was opened by the courtesy of Mr S. M. Anisuzzaman, CEO of BIFFL. Topics discussed include the monitoring observations on the NOC issuing status, fund transaction status, sub-projects reporting requirements advisory, status of the pending issues, eligible equipment enhancement proposals, and project effect presentation discussions. Proposals from the PI Consultant team to delete COP requirements from the air conditioner eligibility, and an idea to express the Project’ achievements in the form of energy saving capacity introduced through the Project funding was broadly endorsed by the meeting participants. The three executing agencies agreed to have the November meeting held on one of the days among 23rd, 24th, 27th, or 28th of the month. 

5. Appendices 

Appendix 38-1:  Seminar on Two-step loan program for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Promotion Financing Project (EECPFP) at Chattogram 

Appendix 38-2: Oil and Gas Price Volatility and Energy Efficiency & Conservation for Current / Future Industries (Chattogram WS material)

Appendix 38-3:  Overview of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Promotion Financing Project (Chattogram WS material) 

Appendix 38-4:  Impacts of improvement of energy efficiency 

Appendix 38-5:  Power Expo 2022 Bangladesh 

Appendix 38-6:  Power Expo 2022 Presentation – EECPFP 

Appendix 38-7:  Power Expo 2022 Presentation – Energy Audit Works, Golden Procedure 

Appendix 38-8:  GoB Training Material – Mass & Energy Balance