The benefits of energy auditing in providing a means of producing tangible outputs to identify areas where energy consumption and wastage could be minimised.

The accumulated results and recommendations from the auditing can assist an organisation in developing effective strategies to reduce their energy consumption and improve energy efficiency within their respective buildings.

This was highlighted by Hj Jamain Hj Julaihi, Director of Electrical Services in his welcoming remarks during a seminar on the promotion of Energy Efficiency and Conservation (PROMEEC) for Buildings in Southeast Asia under the SOME-METI Work Programme 2010-2011.

The event was held yesterday at the Radisson Hotel in the capital. Hj Jamain also said that the PROMEEC programme, which was a project under the Asean-Japan Cooperation, was jointly implemented and organised by the Energy Division at the Prime Minister's Office, Energy Conservation Centre of Japan (ECCJ), Asean Centre for Energy (ACE) and Energy Efficiency and Conservation Sub-Sector Network or Working Group.

Yesterday, he pressed on the urgent need for the people to embrace valuable and doable saving efforts that will contribute to the nation's sustainable economic development.

"At the same time, these efforts will contribute positively to the environment in tackling climate change issues, as there is a potential in minimising carbon dioxide emissions," he explained.

In matters pertaining to energy security, energy efficiency has long been a major undertaking to oil-importing countries as a result of the 1973 oil crisis.

The Director of Electrical Services also listed a number of ways to help minimise energy consumption, some of which include the reduction of system operating hours; adjusting space temperature to a degree of comfort level to 24 degrees or plus minus one degree or higher; adhering to schedule maintenance and preventive maintenance scheme of major equipments; and considering the installations of energy-efficient technologies such as Compact Fluorescent Lamps and inverter-type air-conditioners for new buildings.

Some of the recommendations from the energy audit were implemented. showing very promising results simply by practising no-cost and low-cost measures.

The enemy audit exercises proved that a minimum of 10 per cent electricity consumption reduction can easily be achieved.

Hj Jamain went on to congratulate the successful energy audit carried out on the two buildings the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defence.

During the seminar, Mr Yoshitaka Ushio from the EECJ also shared with the participants, the importance of building a common basis to implement and disseminate energy efficiency and conservation measures with multi-lateral cooperation in addition to efforts by individual countries.

He expressed fear that climate changes will cause more difficult challenges for mankind, describing to the participants, the situation in many cities in Japan this summer, where these areas have hit the highest temperature record in the last 100 years.

"We are seriously afraid of these climate changes which seem to be caused by greenhouse gases emission," he said.

He stated that the energy efficiency and conservation measures are proven to be the most practical, immediately feasible and surely effective measures in any nation in terms of investment cost and economic aspects.

This is based on Japan's more than 30 years of experience coping with energy issues.

"Through the PROMEEC project activities, we can share benefits of the achievements while we share the responsibility for energy conservation and environmental protection," said Mr Yoshitaka Ushio.

The participants at the seminar also had the opportunity to sit through presentations outlining some of the best practices for EE&C.

A presentation delivered by 'Market Market' Mall of the Philippines saw Mr Oscarlito C Malvar from ACE explaining to them how a commercial building with a total floor area of 178,351.21 sq metres is currently implementing an installation of variable frequency drives (VFD) to 10 built-up air handling units, used to adjust the frequency and the rotational speed of the air handling units blower motor to match the system demand for air flow volume.

The seminar also saw the participation of government officers from various ministries, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communications, as well as officers from Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd, TelBru, Anti-Corruption Bureau and DST Comm. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin.

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