Category: English News

Under a pressuring energy situation in Egypt with rising energy costs and insecurity of supply, it was clear to Sidi Kerir Petrochimicals (Sidpec) and Al Ezz Dekheila Steel Company (EZDK) companies’ top management that a serious commitment to improving their energy performance to reduce their overall costs is the way out. Thus, concrete steps have been taken to adopt an EnMS that is compliant with ISO 50001. In order to introduce a structured approach to energy management in their operations, Sidpec and EZDK companies have joined hands with the IEE project. The project has supported Sidpec and EZDK in the implementation of an Energy Management System (EnMS) compliant with ISO 50001 aiming to improve the company’s Energy Efficiency (EE) performance and reduce their environmental impact.

With UNIDO’s support, Sidpec and EZDK staff were engaged in a process to implement an EnMS compliant with ISO 50001 starting with securing management commitment till third party auditing and certification. The implementation of the EnMS has proven to be both easy and cost effective giving a strong management commitment and the availability of adequate resources.

EZDK Company was able to save about 815,000 MWh equivalent to about 128 Million EGP with a total investment of about 43 Million EGP While Sidpec saved 39,100 MWh equivalent to 7.7 million EGP with a total investment of 180,000 EGP. This clearly highlights UNIDO’s mandate which ensure inclusive and sustainable industrial development and support industries in developing and emerging economies in promoting cost efficiencies and competitiveness in industry.

You can view and download EZDK and Sidpec case studies from the IEE Egypt website: www.ieeegypt.org

The IEE project implemented by UNIDO is currently progressing towards the development of a national strategy for Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) in order to accelerate EE efforts in the industrial sector in Egypt. The IEE project has finalized the “Baseline assessment report” and “International best practices report”, followed by 2 think tanks meetings with representatives from government, private sector and academic staff to work on the formulation of the IEE policy. Then the project held a meeting with HE Dr. Khaled Fahmy, Minister of Environment and HE Dr. Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, Minister of Trade, Industry and SMEs and a team of IEE project experts to discuss the development of a national Industrial Energy Efficiency strategy followed by 2 consultation workshops to align on strategic objectives, generate potential actions to achieve objectives and mitigate challenges and agree on required policies.

On the 28th March, the IEE project held a meeting with representatives from government and industry to discuss the derivation of potential policies. This meeting took place at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises and aimed at discussing the policies pertaining to the agreed strategic objectives. The meeting is a prelude to the second workshop that will finalize the policies and their implementation plans.
Key points raised during the meeting:

Phasing of targeted industries within each policy was welcomed to avoid imbalances and bottlenecks.
Policies should not overburden the industry with bureaucratic procedures.
EE measures should be mandated and not be left as a voluntary action
Implementing EMS garnered support from participants who recommended mandating ISO 50001

HE Dr. Khaled Fahmy, Minister of Environment Launched “Kafa’a” campaign; the first campaign in Egypt for raising awareness about the importance of Energy Efficiency (EE) and energy management systems in the industrial sector. This campaign was launched in partnership with EEAA, UNIDO, Federation of Egyptian Industries and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and SMEs represented by Industrial Development Authority (IDA), Industrial Modernization Center and the Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality. Launching Kafa’a took place on the 5th May, at the Cairo House.

HE Dr. Khaled Fahmy stated that “Kafa’a” Campaign is aiming at promoting the concepts of improving EE in the industrial sector and raising the awareness about the benefits of implementing Energy Management System (EnMS) in the industrial facilities.

Dr. Fahmy highlighted that the industrial sector is the driving force for economy and development in Egypt, as it provides job opportunities for more than 1.8 million workers, and contributes to the GDP by more than 37%. However, the industrial sector is the largest energy consumer; it consumes around 43% of the total energy consumption. Dr. Fahmy mentioned that the final consumption rate for each production unit exceeds the global average by 10% to 50%. Consequently, there is huge potential for improving the EE in the industrial sector which in turn could contribute to solving the current energy crisis the country is facing resulted from the lack of energy supplies. Dr. Khaled encouraged the industrial sector to register in Kafa’a campaign in order to increase their competitiveness and reduce emissions.

Engineer Ismail Gaber, Director of IDA stated that an information unit for “Kafa’a” campaign was established to promote EE and raise the awareness on the importance of implementing EnMS in the industrial facilities. He emphasized that implementing EnMS will reduce the unit cost of products and thus will increase competitiveness. He also highlighted that implementing EnMS does not require huge investments as it focuses more on No/Low cost energy saving opportunities.

Kafaa is one of the outputs of Industrial Energy Efficiency project. The campaign aims at promoting the concepts of improving energy efficiency in the industrial sector and raising the awareness about the benefits of applying energy management systems in the industrial facilities.

“Kafaa Campaign” activities

Launch “Kafaa” page on the project website and the websites of the partner organizations namely: Egypitan Environmental Affairs Agency, the Egyptian Organization for Standardization, Industrial Development Authority, Industrial Modernization Centre and Federation of Egyptian Industries.
Establish an information unit for “Kafaa Campaign”. This information unit introduces the importance of improving energy efficiency to the industrial facilities, respond to various enquiries and register the data of the interested industrial facilities. This unit can be contacted through email or phone number mentioned in the page.
Integrate “Kafaa campaign” in the digital as well as printed publications of the partner organizations to outreach a larger number of targeted people, which in turn ensures the success of the campaign in facing the current energy crisis.
Apply a system that distinguishes the participating industrial facilities and achieves the largest reduction in energy consumption.
Hold an honouring celebration for the industrial facilities that achieved the highest reduction rates by the end of the campaign to encourage other facilities and achieve maximum benefit.
Provide training
Hold media interviews to spread the principles and objectives of “Kafaa Campaign” through media.
Produce promotional materials including success stories, case studies and brochures.
Develop awareness banners inside the factories to promote the importance of improving energy efficiency.
Produce a documentary film that presents success stories achieved through the campaign.

Al Ezz Dekheila Steel Company (EZDK) is one of the world leading iron and steel manufacturers and they are located in El Dekheila in Alexandria. With UNIDO IEE’s support, EZDK is the first iron and steel company in Egypt to become ISO 50001 certified. This achievement is attained through strong partnership with IEE project in Egypt, financed by the GEF and implemented by the UNIDO in cooperation with Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Industry, Trade Small and Medium Enterprises and the Federation of Egyptian Industries.

EZDK has reviewed and analyzed its energy consumption and production data from 2011 to 2014, which allowed to identify the key areas for improving their energy performance. EZDK has worked with an approach of not to overlook any saving opportunity neither big nor small. Based on this approach, the company has identified twenty-seven energy saving opportunities varying from no investment to high investment costs. An action plan was developed for the implementation of these opportunities over a period of three years and today some of them have already been implemented.

Through a systematic energy performance monitoring mechanism compliant with ISO 50001, EZDK was able to measure the impact of these interventions and make sure they have achieved the desired estimated savings. The company has worked on reducing consumption of both electricity and natural gas, which have resulted in very significant savings that have improved the company’s competitiveness as well as reduced its negative environmental impact.

The close cooperation between UNIDO IEE project and EZDK team that was demonstrated in EZDK’s staff attending UNIDO EnMS User and Expert trainings as well as cooperation on site between EZDK staff and UNIDO consultants’ has proven that it is possible to have a very smooth and fast implementation of a structured energy management system compliant with ISO 50001. EZDK and UNIDO were able to collect, analyze and document all the EnMS data and implementing energy saving measure in a period less than a year from the beginning until certification. This was only possible due to EZDK top management’s commitment to improving the company’s energy performance and reducing hence carbon footprint.

In 2011, a study developed by the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry in Japan stated, “Energy efficiency will not be significantly improved simply because energy-saving equipment is installed and renewed. In-plant energy systems are complex, and the optimum operation of these systems will lead to further improvements in energy efficiency”.

Through the interaction between the IEE project with the industry managers and engineers, it has been observed that there is a wide notion to focus exclusively on the technology used when working on improving energy efficiency.

Although it is definitely important to take into consideration the technologies used, however experience has proven that extending the system boundaries and seeing the technology within the context of its overall system results in better energy performance and could sometimes save companies unnecessary investments.

It is estimated that by only focusing on individual components energy efficiency gains are typically within the range of 2-5% of initial energy consumption while when adopting a system approach these gains could reach 15-30%.

For example, globally, in industry 68 % of all electricity is used in motorized systems such as pumps, fans, compressors, and mechanical movement; of this, 42 % is used by pumps, fans, and compressors.

If we look at pumping systems, which use 14% of global industrial electricity use, the first energy efficiency measure that would come to mind is the use of variable speed drives (VSDs).

This focus on VSDs neglects the rest of the system component and hence companies might miss significant opportunities to improve their energy performance. With a pumping system, we must understand all the different components that are connected to and interact with a pump. This includes components like controls and drivers for the pump as well as all the piping and other components like valves and heat exchangers that the fluid passes through. In addition, analyzing and reviewing the process demand and pump installation are crucial in achieving the best energy performance possible. For example, one company realized a 10 fold increase in reliability by instituting new installation specifications relating to Base-plate, piping, and grouting.

Finally, to ensure that the desired energy efficiency levels are achieved, any system should be monitored closely in a systematic way to ensure continual improvements.

This is the rationale behind UNIDO’s approach of combining energy management (EnMS) and system optimization to achieve the highest energy efficiency levels. This has proven to result in not only energy being saved, but at the same time, the reliability and control of the system are enhanced, while maintenance costs decline.

With all of these benefits, one would expect system optimization and EnMS to be standard operating procedure for most industrial facilities. However, most industrial managers are unaware of both the existing inefficiency of these systems or the benefits that could be derived from optimizing them for efficient operation.

After 1 year of extensive training on the implementation of EnMS, the IEE project steering committee celebrated the graduation of the first energy management experts qualified from UNIDO during their meeting on 11th March.

Throughout this extensive training, the national experts were able to do a complete energy audit on a large scale enterprise and produce an energy audit report. Now these national experts have gained the knowledge as well as technical expertise on energy management system and are certified as energy management local experts.

At the side of his visit to attend the Egypt Economic Conference, the UNIDO Director-General, Mr. Li Yong, visited the regional office in Egypt on the 16th March and launched UNIDO’s new solar energy project on the 17th March.

During his meeting with UNIDO – Egypt staff members, he praised the efforts exerted by them and highlighted the importance of upscaling and expanding UNIDO activities in Egypt. He also stressed on the importance of focusing on UNIDO’s competitive advantage being the promotion and acceleration of inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) in developing countries and economies in transition.

Li yong and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Small and Medium Size Enterprises, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour launched a new solar energy project that will focus on developing local capacities to manufacture solar energy products and components that are in compliance with international quality norms, with the objective of pursuing ISID. It is expected to bring in considerable investments from the private sector to support building the solar industry within Egypt, allowing it to play a leading role in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Iron and steel industry is considered one of the most important pillars of the Egyptian Industry, and upon which many significant plants were established and the economy was based on. Cement industry comes in the second place, following petroleum among industries that contribute to the national economy. It supports the national economy by 60 billion USD annually. Despite importance, these sectors face many problems including: high production costs and irregular supply of essential energy, which in fact re-emphasizes the importance of energy efficiency to ensure the sectors’ competitiveness.

Recognizing the high opportunities for energy savings using energy management systems in these sectors, the Egyptian Organization for Standardization (EOS) in cooperation with the IEE project held the third workshop for introducing EnMS inside the industrial facilities on Thursday, 15th January at the EOS premises.
The workshop aimed at raising the awareness of decision makers, in the cement and iron and steel sectors, about the importance of applying EnMS, its requirements, benefits and energy rationalization alternatives. This workshop represents a practical example of UNIDO’s approach to transfer knowledge and expertise to national experts and create local ownership.

Following the participation of staff of Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company (SIDPEC) in the UNIDO EnMS training programme delivered within the IEE project and the success demonstrated by the company in implementing Energy Management System (EnMS) and obtaining ISO 50001 which resulted in savings up to 10% of its energy consumed using no cost measures, UNIDO and Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) agreed to cooperate on starting the first peer to peer network within the petrochemicals sector by supporting experts trained at SIDPEC to transfer their knowledge and expertise to staff of all companies in the petrochemicals sector.

SIDPEC staff carried out the first training session to companies on March 15th 2015.

This training was attended by a total of 30 participants from 7 companies including SIDPEC.