Energy efficiency drive to ignite Omani business opportunities

of double glazed windows to keep natural heat out.

Both shortcomings represent business opportunities for local SMES eager to venture into the nascent, yet promising, energy services market, said Bushra. The market for building insulation materials, for example, is presently non-existent in Oman and is thus an opportunity waiting to be exploited, she pointed out. These opportunities will burgeon once new building codes and standards for energy efficiency buildings are introduced and enforced, the official added.

Likewise, a new market for energy management services is expected to mushroom in the Sultanate on the back of the regulator’s energy efficiency drive. Along with building audit and retrofit services, a strong uptake of thermostats, sensors and other automated systems anticipated, she said.

The official, however, stressed the need for enhanced awareness of energy efficiency, particularly in areas accounting for a substantive share of total electricity consumption. The residential sector accounted for a dominant 46 per cent of the estimated 32 terawatt-hours of electricity consumed in 2017. The services sector (encompassing agriculture services, health, education, government, and so on), came second with a 38 per cent share. In third place was the industrial sector with a 16 per cent share.

“Looking at electricity intensity trends across the residential, services and industrial sectors, all showed increasing trends, unfortunately suggesting that we are not doing very well in energy efficiency in Oman,” she remarked. is