RAWALPINDI, Feb 9: The federal government has entrusted Engineering Development Board (EDB) the task of adopting strategies in collaboration with relevant private sector industries to enhance the efficiencies of different energy consuming household products being produced in the country.

As per the government’s initiatives to overcome the energy crisis in the country, the EDB held separate meetings on Saturday with leading local manufacturers of fans and pumps and finalised a strategy which would help enhance the efficiency of these domestic products. The increased efficiency will result not only in reducing consumption of energy and help conserve energy.

The discussions focused on different aspects of the products including general design, quality of input material and the relevant benchmarks. EDB General Manager Zahid Yaqub, who chaired the meeting, informed the private sector representatives about the initiatives being taken by the government to overcome the energy crisis. One of the strategies adopted is to enhance the efficiency of different energy consuming household products.

The meeting was informed that the electricity consumption during 2005-06 was 67,603GWh, out of which 45.4 per cent was consumed by the domestic sector. It was estimated that every household in Pakistan has a minimum of two to three fans and based on this figure, the total strength of fans was over 30 million.

The President of Fan Manufacturers Association (FMA) called for reducing the rate of sales tax on various components of fans. Currently, the country has four leading manufacturers of fans as compared to nearly 200 small units manufacturing fans in different parts of the country.

The FMA president alleged that the small units were using substandard components in order to keep the price low and ignoring energy conservation.

According to the FMA statistics, the industry was manufacturing five million fans every year, out of which one million fans were exported fetching $30 million. The FMA also called for banning export of copper, the main component used in fan manufacturing.

The meeting on pumps was told that the enhancement of efficiency of motors used in domestic industrial and agricultural sectors can save 3 to 5 per cent of the total electricity consumption. It was felt that quality of copper wire and silicon steel being used and manufacturing of motors and pumps should be increased by reviewing the standards developed by the PSQCA.

The federal government has also decided to introduce standards for the manufacturing of gas geysers in order to enhance their efficiency and save energy.

The Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has drafted the required standards for the production of gas geysers. The standards were being sent to all chambers of commerce and industry and manufacturers for their views before finalisation.

The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by EDB General Manager Zahid J. Yaqub and attended by leading manufacturers of geysers, representatives of government agencies and senior officials of SNGPL.

The meeting was informed that the energy efficiency of local geysers was much lower than the world standards. Therefore, research and development (R&D) was necessary to achieve global standard.

The industry emphasised the need of duty-free import of various components of instant water heaters in order to introduce quality products in the market. Some manufacturers showed their willingness to produce high quality products, if investment on R&D was made by the government.

ENERCON Managing Director Fareed Ullah Khan informed the meeting that the government was ready to accept any practical proposal from private sector for energy conservation.

Addressing the meeting, the EDB general manager said that the government was undertaking initiative to minimise the magnitude of the energy crisis. One of the strategies adopted is to enhance the efficiencies of the different energy consuming household products. He added that the crisis should be converted into an opportunity to introduce high quality product in the market.

Another area, which needs to be looked into, is the phasing out of inefficient incandescent bulbs in favour of more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut household energy costs.

While CFLs are more expensive to buy than incandescent bulbs, they pay for themselves in lower power bills within a year. The switch to CFLs will result in household lighting costs falling by as much as 80 per cent, and the country’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions falling 2 million metric tons starting in 2010.

Additionally, national electricity demand is expected to fall by 2,000 megawatts, or the equivalent of electricity generated by six power plants.