1. Major Activities of the Month
The month of May/2023 is the last month when consultants are engaged in activities. Most of the work focused on preparation and submission of the final deliverables, as well as hand over the main achievements to SREDA and other stakeholders.
1.1 Preparation and Submission of the deliverables
Approaching the completion of the PI Consultant Team’s activities, the Final Report and the draft Project Completion Report (draft PCR) submissions were due. The Draft Final Report (DFR) which was drafted back in March was submitted in paper copy in April, and SREDA’s comments were received in mid-May. The PI Consultant Team incorporated all comments after the discussion with the Project Director and the Assistant Project Director, then to have it finalised and submitted in hard copies with the appendices to SREDA on the final working day of the month. After the preparation of the Final Report, the draft PCR was created using JICA PSR format, and was left with SREDA for their revision, update, and submission to JICA Bangladesh Office at an appropriate timing.
1.2 Awareness raising activities
1.2.1 Workshop on Energy Management Practices in Industries on 9/May/2023
The workshop was organized by SREDA and the PI Consultant team with an aim to award energy managers who have been recently certified by SREDA.
The workshop began with the opening speech by the Project Director Mr. Rezaul Hoq, followed by his presentation about the role of energy managers in industries. In his presentation, Mr. Rezaul outlined that energy managers and energy auditors are an essential part of Bangladesh’s energy efficiency and conservation promotion policy, and will contribute to meet energy saving targets at each industry. Companies will have to invest into their infrastructure, which will require expert input by energy managers and energy auditors. It will also be required to collect and analyse consumption data, to evaluate the energy performance of the companies’ factories and/or equipment, to identify challenges and malfunctions. The industry will expect to be provided with advisory by the energy managers and auditors, leading to improvements. Mr. Rezaul wrapped his presentation up with the explanation of several energy audit case studies, to visualise the potential activities expected by an energy manager and energy auditor. After the presentation, there was a question from the audience, if SREDA has any specific targets for the number of energy managers and energy auditors to be certified for the near future. A masterplan is in the process of preparation, which includes such targets. However, the numbers can’t be disclosed before the official publication.
Mr. Rezaul’s presentation was followed by the main event of the workshop, the certificate awarding ceremony for the certified energy managers. Ms. Munira Sultana, Chairman of SREDA and Mr. Md. Habibur Rahman, Secretary Power Division, provided the introductory speeches for the ceremony, expressing their hope, that the energy managers will be key to future sustainability of Bangladesh and accelerators for further value to the national economy.
After all energy managers who attended the workshop received their certificates and the festive atmosphere settled, the workshop resumed with a presentation about opportunities of energy saving potential, by Mr. Yoshihiko Kato, team leader of the PI Consulting team. The very first message of his presentation was that there are many more energy managers needed to promote energy efficiency in the industry to make Bangladesh greener. The first energy managers, those who were awarded at this event, are expected to be the role models and teachers for future energy managers to come. They are not only expected to contribute to Bangladesh’s sustainability on the company’s level to which they are affiliated to, but on a national level. To provide a macro-level perspective, Mr. Kato laid out the overall picture of energy supply and consumption in Bangladesh, combined with an explanation of SREDA’s role in documenting and publicising wholistic energy data. He discussed Bangladesh’s situation regarding its energy security and stressed that the residential sector, which is often neglected in energy saving considerations, is an eminently important sector, when considering the final energy consumption. The presentation was concluded with an introduction into the EECPFP-activities and its achievements. The final presentation of the day was held by Dr. Kimio Yoshida, energy efficiency and conservation expert of the PI Consulting team. Mr. Yoshida’s presentation gave a detailed oversight about the global trend of energy efficiency and conservation, with an evaluation of key technologies to achieve global carbon neutrality. Relevant technologies were heat pumps, zero emission buildings (ZEB) and zero emission factories (ZEF), LEDs and inverters, among others. A key message to the freshly certified energy managers was that energy consumption of buildings is on a rapid rise, which calls for increased needs for energy management. Key factors for energy efficient buildings are good design, good machinery, and good maintenance.
However, many building owners make the mistake to introduce highly efficient equipment but to neglect sufficient investment into insulation. The expertise of energy managers and energy auditors can contribute to avoid such mistakes. Furthermore, Mr. Yoshida’s presentation did also provide a forecast of global transportation, with a moderate shift towards EVs. After an introduction to the golden procedure to promote energy efficiency and conservation effectively, Mr. Yoshida concluded his presentation with a message to all energy managers, that keeping yourself up to date with the global trend is essential for valuable energy advisory.
1.2.2 Awareness raising issue matrix and flyers for environment and social considerations
The PI Consultant Team’s environmental and social considerations experts from CEGIS have been working intensively for the development of environmental and social considerations issue matrix and awareness raising flyers based on the priorities identified in the matrix. These materials are developed to ensure that the Project activities do never result in any negative effects to environmental and social aspects. It is also meant to reiterate the Project executing agencies’ commitments to adhere to their environmental and social considerations safeguard policies.
Five sectors were chosen as the priority sectors to be addressed to; these are (1) Spinning, (2) cement, (3) building, (4) dyeing, and (5) steel. With respect to the utmost importance of the topic, the materials were developed with the participation of almost all of the PI Consultant Team Members. Environmental and social considerations awareness raising will be further promoted through dissemination of these materials, mostly in electronic format.
1.3 In-house capacity development lectures for SREDA
On May 2, 2023, Dr. Kimio Yoshida conducted a lecture for SREDA officials, titled “Recent useful information to promote EEC (global and in Japan) for SREDA”. The presentation covered various topics as follows:
- Points of Revised Act on Rationalizing Energy in Japan (April 2023)
- EE evaluation method in vehicles (EV, oil driven cars etc.)
- Electrification
- ECCJ/ METI’s potential support for SREDA in 2023
1.4 Energy Audit
1.4.1 Modern Office Building
The PI consultation team, with SREDA officials and an IDCOL representative, conducted an energy audit at one of the most modern office buildings in Dhaka, on May 7, 2023.
The building’s chiller with inverter, heat reflective glass, lighting and elevators were inspected. The result of the energy audit showed that the chiller’s estimated coefficient of performance (COP) was over 6.0. This result indicates that the chiller was energy efficient. In addition, the inverter-controlled elevator with permanent magnetic motors, LED lighting, and natural lighting operated as planned. On the other hand, the window frame and glass surface temperature were over 30 degrees Celsius at 4 p.m. on the day of audit (Fig 4).
This result indicates that the window’s frame insulation didn’t perform well. Therefore, an improvement of window’s frame insulation should be considered for future buildings. The presentation of the energy audit findings is shown in Appendix 45-5.
1.4.2 Cement Factory
The PI consultation team with SREDA officials conducted an energy audit at a major cement factory in Khulna on May 16, 2023. A vertical roller mill (VRM) was inspected by the audit team (Fig 6). Based on the VRM’s power consumption data from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the day of audit, the specific power consumption was 21.3 kWh/t, which is lower than the baseline value (37.4kWh/t). Compared with the baseline, energy saving is around 43%.
However, the temperature of some points of the hot gas recycle duct was observed to be over 80℃, which implies that there might be a significant energy loss. Therefore, the insulation should be improved (Fig 8-11). The presentation of the energy audit findings is shown in Appendix 45-6.
1.5 Project infrastructure development
1.5.1 MIS/DASH modification
The Project MIS has already been in stable operation, functioning as the database as well as the workflow for the sub-project formulation and implementation. With the departure of the Phase I Project Implementation Consultant Team at the end of the month, the Project MIS will be managed entirely by SREDA PIU. The PI Consultant Team collaborated with CSL Software Resources Ltd., the developer of the Project MIS to pursue some backend data correction including the line of business, approved loan amount figure, eligible equipment information which were found to have been registered with errors. Another modification with the Project MIS was the addition of the proposed DNO (deemed non-objection) process, which may be introduced with the aim to streamline the technical appraisal processes in future.
The data and statistics handling (DASH) function of the Project MIS has somewhat been less utilised due to the difficulty in reflecting the registered data into visual format. It is for this reason that an additional chart drawing function has been added. After this modification, DASH function of the system will be able to exhibit the sub-project energy efficiency performance publicly but in a unanimous form. It will therefore function as the homepage of the Project performance and achievement information dissemination.
1.5.2 Business Process Manual modification
The PI Consultant Team, after consultations with the IFIs, is suggesting more enhancement and flexibility with the Project implementation. In response to such ideas, the PI Consultant Team has prepared a draft of proposed improvements to the Business Process Manual (draft version 6.2). The two major improvement elements are, to enhance the eligible list in line with the TAC2 discussions, and also to introduce an alternative in the technical appraisal process. In this proposed process, SREDA may choose to neither enquire nor to object to the NOC request, in which case the NOC request will be deemed to have received non-objection (DNO). The executing agencies will be consulted on the introduction of these enhancements, but once approved, the Business Process Manual can be submitted to JICA Bangladesh Office for their concurrence, to be distributed to the executing agencies as the version 7.0 set of the manuals.
The PI Consultant Team, after discussion with JICA Bangladesh Office, drafted another Business Process Manual version 7.7 (draft) as the contingency for situation where Project MIS and DASH functions are not available. The process will have to be implemented on paper submission basis without opportunities for data registration and sharing. This contingency version of the Business Process Manuals are meant for the possible blackout period between the PI Consultant Team’s departure and the arrival of the Phase II Project consultant, who will be supporting SREDA with MIS and DASH hosting and service provision.
2. Appendices
Appendix to 2.2.1 Workshop on Energy Management Practices in Industries on 9/May/2023
Appendix 45-1 Agenda
Appendix 45-2 Presentation by Mr. Yoshihiko Kato,” Opportunities for Energy Conservation”
Appendix 45-3 Presentation by Dr. Kimio Yoshida, “Global (Japanese) recent trends in energy efficiency and conservation (decarbonization)”
Appendix to 2.3 In-house capacity development lectures for SREDA
Appendix 45-4 Presentation by Dr. Kimio Yoshida, Recent useful information to promote EEC (global and in Japan) for SREDA” (9/May/2023)
Appendix to 2.4
Appendix 45-5 Energy audit at Shanta Forum (7/May/2023)
Appendix 45-6 Energy audit at Meghna Cement Mills Limited (16/May/2023)