Thailand, Germany jointly promote energy saving in industries

BANGKOK, June 18 (TNA) - Thailand and Germany have joined forces in promoting energy conservation in industries, aimed to reduce energy consumption by 25 per cent by 2030. As part of the agreed cooperation, the Thai Ministry of Energy's Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO) and the German International Cooperation (GIZ) on Tuesday organized an academic seminar in Bangkok on the Standard Offer Programme (SOP), under which incentives are offered for energy saving. EPPO Director-General Suthep Liumsirijarern told journalists that the SOP, which is under a Thai-German cooperation project to reduce energy use by 25 per cent over the next 17 years, particularly calls for energy saving in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) whose investment capacities and personnel are mostly limited. Suthep acknowledged that the call is another measure to stimulate energy saving in Thailand, in addition to the government's subsidies of one baht per unit of electricity for large-scaled firms and two baht per unit for local SMEs which use energy saving equipment. According to the EPPO chief, existing measures depend on the government's energy saving promotion fund, aimed to relieve impacts from its daily minimum wage hike to 300 baht nationwide and from Thailand's flooding crisis in late 2011. The EPPO chief noted that the SOP has been proven to be effective in developed countries, and that relevant authorities will spend about six months to study details for its implementation in Thailand, where small-sized buildings and factories are expected to cut their energy consumption by about 5,800 KTOEs (kilotonnes of oil equivalent) thereafter. GIZ Acting Director Milou Beerepoot said that the SOP has encouraged small-scaled users and industrialists to save energy; so, his organization invited experienced researchers and experts from the United States, Germany, Denmark and other countries to join in Tuesday's seminar to exchange their ideas on the application of the SOP to suit Thailand in order to achieve national energy efficiency. (TNA)