Tanzania industries embark on energy audits

The confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) yesterday signed contracts with six manufacturers. 

Under the pact, the latter will access funding to carry out energy audits that will help them to determine areas with energy inefficiency.

The move aims at tackling challenges of increased energy cost which has forced Tanzanian industries to look for better ways of using energy efficiently and reduce the cost of production.

The Danish International Development Agency (Danida) will fund fully the cost of energy audits to participating industries.

Danida has provided $600,000 (Sh1.3 billion) to support industries to conduct the audits in which every large industry is estimated to spend between Sh20 million to Sh80 million for the work.

“The industries will, however, contribute 15 per cent of the total cost of audit to CTI to meet the cost of administering the programme,” CTI director of Policy and Advocacy Hussein Kamote (pictured) said.

He urged manufacturing firms to carry out energy audits so as to identify loopholes and leakages in energy consumption.

He said experience from industries that have undertaken energy audits and later implement energy efficiency measures shows that on average an industry can save up to 30 per cent of its energy bill.

“This is a huge cost saving that can turn around the fortunes of an industrial concern,” said Mr Kamote.

In accordance with the CTI report on the challenges of unreliable energy supply to manufacturers, electricity cost accounts for between 15 to 40 per cent of the total cost of production which is higher than the best practice average of below 10 per cent. 

Alaf general manager Chiradeep Guha said his industry on estimate spends $300,000 per month to pay for power bills.

“I hope that after the audit, the industry will be able to save up to $90,000 each month. Such savings will be used for other developmental activities,” said Mr Guha during the signing ceremony.
Source: The Citizen, reported by Veneranda Sumila, from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Share on Google Plus

About Unknown

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.