Kahramaa honours firms, schools for energy conservation

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has honoured a number of organisations, including schools and offices, as part of its ongoing five-year Tarsheed Awareness campaign.
At a meeting held at the Awareness Park yesterday, the representatives of the winning organisations received certificate of appreciation from Kahramaa authorities.
The award was in recognition of their contributions in conducting energy audits of their buildings.
They made substantial savings in conserving energy and water in their respective premises, it was told at the meeting.
The audited organisations were honoured with Certificates of Appreciation from  Kahramaa Conservation and Energy Efficiency Department manager Abdul Azeez al-Hammadi in the presence of a number of senior functionaries of participating firms. Head of Conservation Technology Hashim al-Sada was also present. These entities were also provided with the detailed audit reports which contained the analysis of the energy use of these buildings along with energy conservation measures, their cost and benefits.
The Conservation and Energy Efficiency Department of Kahramaa had deputed an expert team to conduct energy audit in various types of buildings.
In the government buildings category, Kahramaa Main Tower, Ashghal Tower 2 and main building of Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs- Awqaaf were audited besides five mosques.
In the commercial category, Safwa Building (Barwa Commercial Avenue), Al Faisal Tower and Doha Bank were audited while in commercial retail buildings category, LuLu Hypermarket, Safari and Family Food Centre were among those audited.
Apart from these buildings, five schools were also audited. The schools that participated were Abu Obaida Independent Preparatory School for boys, Al Gharafa, Ibn Khaldoon Preparatory Independent School for boys, Al Rayyan, Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim Secondary Independent School for boys, Bani Hajer, Khalifa Independent Secondary School for boys, Madinat Khalifa South as well as Nasser Bin Abdullah Secondary School for boys, Al Khartiat.
The recommendations based on the furnished audit reports have been classified into three types, high cost/medium cost and low to no cost measures. The payback period of these measures are less than two years, medium cost measures – the payback period of these measures are between 2-5 years, invest grade measure – the payback period of these measures are more than five years.
It is expected that the study report will help these entities to conserve energy and water in their premises in the coming days as well.
As per the energy and water audit recommendations, the common best considered practices in operations and maintenance are the implementing of energy monitoring and management system, setting higher temperatures for air conditioners (above 25 degrees C) during non-occupancy hours, reducing the lighting level during non-occupied hours, reducing the speed of ventilation and extract fans during non-occupied hours and installing water saving aerators.
The National Programme for Conservation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed) which was launched as a campaign in year 2012 under the patronage of His Highness the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, is marching towards achieving good results.
The prime target of Tarsheed is to reduce the water and electricity consumption per capita in Qatar by 35% and 20% respectively until 2017, and preserving the decrease until 2020 within the expected increase in population and demand.