Electricity Authority invites ESCOS for energy audit of govt buildings

The Authority for Electricity Regulation floats the first tender requesting proposals from qualified international/local Energy Services Companies (ESCOS) to carry out Auditing and Retrofitting for Government Buildings falling under the Cost Reflective Tariff (CRT) under the Authority’s ‘Yaseer’ energy efficiency initiative. The objective of this programme is to achieve long-term reduction of energy consumption and operational costs in the selected high electricity consuming government buildings and related services.

Qais bin Saud al Zakwani, Executive Director and Member, said: “We are delighted to announce the floating of the first tender to cover 10 government buildings within Muscat. The selection of the first group of buildings was based on the level of electricity consumption and availability of basic details of each building. The aim of the auditing and retrofitting programme is to enable government institutions to achieve sustained reductions in their overall energy consumption by utilizing the ESCO model. ESCOS have long served government markets internationally as they can ensure improved building performance, access to expertise, installation of new more efficient equipment and training of building staff with little to no upfront costs.”

The expected programme timeline is around nine months from the selection of the ESCOS and completion of applying and implementing the proposed Energy Conservation Measures (ECMS). Building owners/entities will sign a contract with ESCO/S for a term (e.g. 5-15 years) based on the amount to be invested by ESCOS and savings on electricity bills. The first phase will form the basis for the coming phases of the programme which will be rolled-out during the next five years to cover additional buildings.

Al Zakwani added: ‘‘The programme is expected to cover up to 70 per cent of government buildings falling under CRT over the coming five years.”