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Promoting Energy Efficiency

EMSD has always played an active part in promoting the notion and application of energy efficiency to the public and to the relevant trades. Within the government, EMSD has always been supporting other departments to achieve energy savings by giving advice and conducting energy audits as well as helping them to install energy-efficient equipment.

Early this year, EMSD had successfully brought together over 200 prominent overseas and local participants from professional bodies, utilities, trade associations, academic institutions, consultants, government departments, and other related parties to a common occasion – the Forum on Energy Efficiency Conservation held on 14 January 2003 – with an aim to enhancing their mutual understanding on the latest developments in energy efficiency and conservation. Renowned guest speakers from the State Development Planning Commission of PRC, APEC Energy Working Group, Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre, US International Centre for Sustainable Development, as well as EMSD made presentations on topics such as energy policy and energy efficiency, new and renewable energy, energy outlook and energy data. Riding on the success of the forum which met with unanimous applause, EMSD is further planning more energy-promoting events in the coming years.

Mr. Otto Poon, Chairman of the Energy Advisory Committee, co-hosts with other guest speakers the Discussion Session in the Forum on Energy Efficiency and Conservation.

In addition to the forum, EMSD also organised a number of briefings on energy saving to bureaux and departments (B/Ds) from April to June this year in line with the ETWB’s initiative of Enhancing Green Management Practice promulgated via their circular memo on 31 March 2003. The Enhancing Green Management Practice initiative aims to economise on the use of resources by encouraging B/Ds to reduce energy and paper consumption. In the area of energy saving, B/Ds are encouraged to achieve a 6% saving in energy consumption in four years from FY2002/03 to 2006/07.

In order to provide practical guidance to B/Ds on how to achieve the savings, EMSD organised four briefing sessions for them, on 28 April, 15 May, 5 June, and 9 June respectively. Two of them were originally planned. In light of the overwhelming response, and in order not to miss out anyone wishing to attend the briefings, two more sessions were added. More than 1,000 officers attended the four briefings. During the briefings, colleagues were informed about the various energy saving measures and some typical projects carried out by EMSD.

Energy saving measures are normally grouped into three categories according to their implementation cost. Category 1 measures are those with practically no cost implication for implementation, principally by means of better housekeeping such as switching off lights and equipment when they are not required and properly setting the room-temperature thermostats. It is often surprising how much energy can be saved simply by changing our energy use habits.

Beyond that, a certain amount of investment and technical support are required. Category 2 measures require relatively “less” capital costs to implement, with payback periods of typically less than three years. Category 3 measures require substantial investments and are technically more complicated, with payback periods ranging from three to six years. Some examples will better illustrate the economics. In September 2001, EMSD replaced 1,600 T8 fluorescent tubes in General Post Office (GPO) with the more efficient T5 tubes. Energy saving was about 40%, trimming off 42,000 kWh a year, and payback period was only 14 months. In September 2000, we retrofitted the lighting installation at East Kai Tak Indoor Games Hall with high-output T5 luminaries. Compared with the previous installation, 49% energy saving, equivalent to 60,000 kWh per annum, was achieved, with a payback period of about three and a half years. Other than saving cost, the new installation also provides better quality illumination. Another example involved the retrofitting of evaporative cooling for condensers in an air-conditioning system in GPO. The annual saving was about 50,000 kWh and payback period was only 20 months. These examples illustrate that investment put into energy saving retrofits will pay off in just a couple of years.

Speakers answer questions from the audience at the Briefing Session on Energy Saving Tips.

To assist B/Ds, the presentation materials of the briefings have been uploaded to the CCGO Green Management corner for access by B/Ds. Along with the briefings, EMSD has prepared a booklet “Energy Saving Tips” as guidelines in energy conservation and distributed to each participant. An electronic version is also made available for access through EMSD’s interactive website “EnergyLand” (http://www.energyland.emsd.gov.hk).

Saving energy is an established government policy. EMSD will give all necessary support to this initiative, and is doing its best to provide technical advice to B/Ds to achieve the consumption reduction target. As the authority on energy efficiency, EMSD is always in a position to give its advice and share its experiences on saving energy for the common good of Hong Kong.