Sustainable Energy Conservation Programme: selective textile units start saving 10-15 percent energy-Texglobe

LAHORE (May 13 2010): Selective units in textile industry have started saving 10 -15 percent energy by implementing Sustainable Energy Conservation Programme. This was stated by the speakers of a press briefing organised by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA).

Ali Ahsan, Convenor APTMA Sub-Committee on Energy, Shahid Rasheed CEO SMEDA and Mihofer, advisor GTZ addressed the press conference organised to highlight the benefits availed by the textile industry after implementing the Energy Management System (EnMS) in spinning, weaving and composite units of textile industry a year back in collaboration with GTZ and SMEDA.

Representatives from three organisations said the EnMS has been installed in 11 mills so far after GAP analysis and a total of 25 mills are being targeted in first phase. He said all three parties ie APTMA, GTZ and SMEDA are targeting a total of 400 textile mills for EnMS and it would ensure a saving of 200,000 tones furnace oil equivalent amounting to Rs 8.2 billion besides reduction of 1.1 million tones Carbon Dioxide omission. Prime purpose of the programme is to save foreign exchange, natural resources and less pollution in environment and best usage of energy and develop alternate energy sources, particularly for the industry located in Punjab.

According to them, 70 percent of industry is designed on captive power, adoption of energy efficient technologies for power generation with support from GTZ. They said it would also strength Energy Conservation Cell to create awareness and improve technical support to members including information on energy and benchmarks for the industry.

They said, renewable energy sources with GTZ support will also be explored, which included solar thermal potential, solar power potential and biomass or waste (cotton stalks, rice husk, and crop waste etc.)

According to the Ali Ahsan, the APTMA was also on the forefront in introducing Energy Audit to its members earlier. This radical change in the energy consumption through a visionary approach of the APTMA leadership has fetched marvellous results on energy consumption front, becoming unbearable due to rise in tariff, unprecedented shortage and absence of an efficient in-house capacity building of energy audit.

He said a total of 10 textile mills across the regions have implemented the EnMS successfully and they have developed their in-house Energy Information System to control their energy cost, which is 40 percent of the total conversion cost. Each mill is saving millions of rupees on energy front by successfully implementing the EnMS through technical support of German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), facilitated by the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority (SMEDA), he added.