EU.

 
Implementation of Resource and Energy Efficient Technologies in the Sugar Sector of Pakistanis a SWITCH-Asia project, funded by the European Union. The overall objective of the project is to promote sustainable growth, contribute to economic prosperity and poverty reduction, and mitigation of climate change by enhancing resource efficiency of the sugar sector through adoption of R&EE technologies.The duration of project is 4 years. The National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA) and State Bank of Pakistan are key associates of the project. The Pakistan based lead organisation of the project is Iqbal Hamid Trust (IHT) and partners are: WADE THAI, Thailand and The Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), gGmbH. The role of NEECA and the Statebank of Pakistan is to develop and enabling environment to ensure and that the transferred know-how is institutionalized, further sustained and developed even after the project closure. Pakistan Sugar Mills Association has also shown its consent to support the project.
Project Background:
Sugar Sector in Pakistan is one of the energy intensive sectors. There are about 73 functional sugar mills in Pakistan and most of sugar mills use outdated technologies and practices for sugar production, resulting in high inefficiencies, wastage of energy and biomass resources subsequently leading to increased cost of production. Majority of the sugar mills have high specific energy consumption of over 1250 MJ/ton which is much higher than the average value of 935 MJ/ton for the Indian sugar sector. The high value in Pakistan can be attributed to the use of antiquated sugar manufacturing equipment which leads to a high steam-on-cane ratio in the order of 52%, and high electricity consumption to the tune of 24kWh/tons of cane crushed, as well as the use of inefficient low-pressure boilers which typically have efficiencies in the range of 65-75%.There are almost 22 industrial sectors in which Boilers and steam distribution systems are the main energy guzzlers.
While the primary focus of the project is on Sugar Sector, the project team shall also work with NEECA for revision of the National Energy Conservation Policy to cater other energy intensive sectors such as Textile Sector (accounting for 27.6% of the overall electricity consumed by industries & 40 % of the Natural Gas) and the Cement Sector (accounting for 68.9% of the total coal consumption by industries). The implementation of Energy Efficiency measures by the sugar sector would lead towards enhanced operation of existing High- Pressure Cogeneration Systems (due to increased availability of bagasse) and would eventually result in power generation capacity addition of over 265 MW to be exported to national grid.
Project Components:
The activities to be carried under the project are divided into three components: 
Under the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act of 2016, the sugar industries in Pakistan being one of the energy intensive industries are going to be notified as designated consumers for which the Energy Audits shall become mandatory. The project will promote sustainable production of sugar among sugar mills through carrying out a Life Cycle Assessment (which will be representative of all sugar cane growing regions) and detailed energy audits, for 70 Sugar Mills, which will make it possible to ascertain the carbon footprint of the sugar mills; this will not only allow the sugar mills to evaluate their environmental impact, but will also serve as a marketing tool (carbon footprint labels) to cater to businesses that only consume sustainable products.  
Three consultative workshops in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi are also going to be held in collaboration with NEECA’s Provincial Designated Agencies so that the project team can get essential feedback from the stakeholders (industrial associations, chamber of commerce and industries, provincial energy departments, academia etc.) to revise the National Energy Conservation Policy of 2006 specifically aiming at the industrial/sugar sector and development of its implementation framework. This will help in policy gap analysis and formulation of policy recommendations for the promotion of R&EE in the industrial/sugar sector of Pakistan.
 The project team shall also arrange consultative meetings of NEECA with its counterpart authority in Thailand, Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE)/ Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO), to update them on the regional best practices on R&EE. Further consultative meetings of NEECA shall also be held with the Ministry of Energy (MOE) and Thailand Sugar Millers Corp. Ltd.
NEECA and the project team shall also work with the financial institutions (FI) and State Bank of Pakistan to launch an Energy Efficiency based financing scheme, offering loans at attractive interest rates, and coupling it with existing Renewable Energy Credit Guarantee Instruments, such as the SBP approved USAID DCA Scheme for increased uptake of R&EE technologies by Pakistan’s industrial sector. This scheme will benefit not only the sugar sector but all other industrial sectors interested in adoption of resource and energy efficiency measures. The activity shall also help in promotion of standardized industrial energy efficient equipment e.g. air compressors, motors, boilers, steam traps, IoT based solutions etc.
Keeping in view the enormous energy saving potential and importance of the Project, Honorable Minister is requested to give suitable date and time for conduct of the aforementioned consultative workshop in Islamabad during 2nd week of March, 2019.