Category: English News

A seminar was held at the Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) on the 6th of November. The seminar was attended by ECHEM management and representatives from Petrochemical companies.

During the seminar, Eng. Hany Abdel Aziz, Vice President for Quality, Safety, Occupational Health and Environment of ECHEM highlighted the importance of Energy Management Systems (EnMS) and its benefits in reducing production costs by utilizing energy efficiently.

Dr. Tamer Hikal, Assistant General Manager for Planning and Projects at ECHEM and IEE projct Steering Committee member highlighted the importance of energy savings in the industrial sector due to the energy challenge which is currently facing Egypt.

The IEE project introduced its training programmes on EnMS and standards targeted to industrial enterprises. Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company (SIDPEC) is one of the enterprises who was enrolled in the training services provided by the IEE project and achieved good results.

Eng. Mohamed Ibrahim, SIDPEC Quality Control Sector Manager presented the energy savings achieved by applying EnMS and ensured that SIDPEC team has the sufficient capacity and expertise to take the lead in rolling out the EnMS training among its peers with the support of IEE project and Egyptian Pertrochimicals Holding Company in the Petrochemicals sector (ECHEM).

ECHEM was established to manage and develop the Petrochemicals industry in Egypt through new promising areas of investment. ECHEM priority is to enhance the growth of Petrochemical industry.

On the occasion of establishing the United Nations (UN) on 24th October 1945, the UN held a celebration event on the 25th October at Aquarium Grotto Garden, Zamalek.

During the day success stories and beneficiaries of the UN projects in Egypt were highlighted. The Industrial Energy Efficiency “IEE” Project implemented by UNIDO participated in this event. The project introduced the services it provide to improve energy efficiency in Egypt. Energy experts and representatives of the industrial sector participated to speak to the media and the public about industrial energy and how to rationalize it.

Egypt’s IEE project organized a three days training event on EnMS from 19-21 October 2014. This training is the 2nd part of the three training modules delivered by IEE project to the second training group of national experts. The national experts are receiving the training modules as well as troubleshooting any challenge they face during the implementation of EnMS at the factories through regular webinars. It is worth mentioning that this training module is delivered by one national expert and one international expert aiming to transfer the training experience from international consultants to national experts.

Egypt’s Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) project organized a 3 days training event on Energy Management Systems (EnMS) from 14-17 October 2014. The IEE project trained 20 national trainees representing government professionals, private sector consultants, engineers, as well as academic staff.

After 1 year of extensive training on the implementation of EnMS, the first group of trainees finished the 3rd and last module and completed their final exam in order to be qualified from UNIDO as Energy Management Experts.

There was a practical training on internal energy audit where the participants were divided into 2 groups and visited 2 factories. The national trainees were able to do a complete energy audit on a large scale enterprise and produce an energy audit report.

Now the national trainees of the first training cycle have gained the knowledgeable as well as technical expertise on energy managment system and will be certified as energy management local experts.

The IEE project in Egypt implemented by UNIDO held an awareness seminar on Energy Management System (EnMS) for the representatives of Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency’s (EEAA) Regional Brach Offices (RBOs) in Egypt on Sunday 12th October 2014 at Cairo House, the project held this awareness seminar to highlight the importance of EEAA RBOs role in responding to energy challenges facing the country.

In many countries the industrial sector represents a challenge for policy makers. It may be difficult to address energy efficiency requirements in the industrial sector, as it might influence the competiveness of the industry negatively. However, a well-planned and balanced IEE policy can reduce total costs and can improve quality and productivity.

IEE project is taking the lead with its partners to develop an IEE policy especially because Egypt is currently facing such challenges. The IEE policy mission took place from 28th to 30th September, 2014 at the IEE project to discuss the strategy framework and the next required steps.

The IMC “Industrial Modernization Center” and EOS “Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality” in cooperation with the IEE Project in Egypt affiliated to UNIDO launched a series of awareness workshops for disseminating EnMS “Energy Management System” concepts in the industrial sector. These workshops took place on Wednesday, 17th September and the 1st of October 2014 at IMC premises.

The objective of these workshops was raising the awareness of decision makers in ceramics, cement, metallurgical industries and chemicals industries’ on EnMS and its implementation as well as the benefits and opportunities for saving energy in their facilities.

Engineer Ahmed Taha, Executive Director of IMC started his speech by ensuring that IMC since its foundation, has been focusing on fostering its ties with different international organizations of similar mandate. Eng. Ahmed Taha praised the efforts exerted in launching these workshops which is considered an outcome of transferring international experiences gained through IEE project as well as building national cadres capable of implementing EnMS in the industrial sector, which in turn will place the Egyptian industry on the international competitiveness map.

Dr. Hassan Abdel Meguid, Chairman of EOS stated that with the aggravation of the energy problem in the country, it is a must to find non-traditional solutions. One of these solutions is the implementation of EnMS inside industrial facilities. Since EOS is the competent and official body responsible for standardization activities, quality and industrial metrology, this workshop reflects the responsibility of EOS in energy efficiency.

Engineer Hasssan Abel Salam, Energy Manager of Royal Ceramics company praised the role of IEE and its positive impact on the company, he assured that the company will be capable to save 10% from electricity and 5% from the natural gas during the implementation of EnMS in the company. He also observed a big shift towards workers attitude in the factory and their keenness to save energy which is reflected on energy consumption.

The UNIDO commits to develop institutional capacity building, implementation and monitoring of industrial energy efficiency policies and programmes, including energy management standards. The IEE project follows the UNIDO approach by developing a training of trainers program for IMC and EOS participants to enable them in sharing and implementing EnMS in the industrial sector.

The IEE Project’s steering committee meeting was held on Monday 29th September at the EEAA premises. Dr. Attwa Hussein, the Head of the Environmental Management Sector who was chairing the meeting on behalf of EEAA CEO, pointed out that the project is considered one of the most important projects in Egypt due to the critical situation regarding energy security and the current changes in energy prices. Dr Attwa thanked the project team for the progress achieved and emphasized that the project is progressing in a satisfactory way during the reporting period.

Ms. Giovanna Ceglie, UNIDO representative thanked the project partners for the level of commitment shown along the last year and the deep involvement of the partners in the project plans and activities. She emphasized that regular interaction and cooperation between the project team and partners is taking place and that this partnership is a good model which needs to be replicated in other UNIDO projects.

Eng. Sherif Abdel Rehim, the EEAA National Project Director presented the last steering committee decisions and how they were addressed during the reporting period.

Ms. Rana Ghoneim, UNIDO Project Manager presented the preliminary findings of the mid-term review, which was carried out in line with the requirement of the Global Environment Facility.

Eng. Gihan Bayoumi, the National Project Coordinator presented the project progress from February 2014 till end of August 2014.

Dr. Hassan Abdel Megid, chairman of EOS has stressed on the importance of training national cadres for energy management and increasing the number of participating companies from the engineering sector. Steering Committee members affirmed that the project should be extended by one year to compensate for delays in starting up the project implementation and other delays during the first year of implementation.

A meeting with IEE project working group was held on Monday 18th August, 2014. Project progress was discussed including the finalization of the Benchmarking reports in three sector; cement, iron and steel and fertilizers by the end of November, the launching of IEE website and facebook page. The international consultant’s visit to industrial facilities to list the opportunities for no/low cost opportunities for energy savings.

Also the plan for energy efficiency trainings was discussed including the training for the EEAA Regional Branch Offices and the initiation of the System Optimization training. Finally, the midterm evaluation as well as the coming IEE steering committee dates were proposed.