Speakers at a webinar on Saturday advised the country's textile and garment factory owners to adopt the concept of Small Energy Efficiency Working Group (SEEWG) to reduce their energy costs and become more efficient and competitive.
Shafiqul Alam, Senior Advisor, of REEEP II, GIZ Bangladesh, who made the keynote presentation on the issue, said the concept of SEEWG is a top level small working group combining officials from technical, planning, procurement, finance and management disciplines.
He said this group, under a coordinator, will conduct energy audits, take measures and perform economic analysis from time to time to evaluate the industry's performance for improving energy efficiency and conservation. This in turn leads to make industry more efficient and competitive, he said.
Citing case studies, he claimed that a number of companies in the country's garment and textile sector have reduced their energy cost by up to 12 per cent by following this concept.
Organized by Energy and Power magazine the webinar was addressed by Power Secretary Habibur Rahman, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hasan, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) Chairman Mohammad Alauddin, Professor Ijaz Hossain of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Markus Bissel, Head of Component Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (4E) Project, GIZ Vietnam.
Energy and Power editor Mollah Amzad Hossain presided over the virtual seminar.
Habibur Rahman said the government will consider providing incentives to promote energy efficiency in the industries.
He said many garment industries still do not think of energy efficiency and conservation issues although the sector contributes 85 per cent to the country's total export earnings.
Faruque Hassan said BGMEA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sreda to work together to adopt and apply energy efficiency concepts in the garment factories.
He mentioned that some of the garment factory owners took measures on their own initiatives and now Bangladesh has eight energy efficient factories in the world, out of total 10.
Prof Ijaz Hossain said lack of available data has been a big problem in Bangladesh to implement any project to get a proper result.
Markus Bissel said Vietnam has become very successful in making its garment factory efficient by introducing the small energy efficiency working group concept.
He said Bangladesh can easily practice it to make its industries efficient and competitive.