Drug manufacturing company, Abacus Parental Drug Ltd is the overall Winner of the inaugural Energy Management Awards (EMAs).
The EMAs 2018 were held on Friday evening August 31, 2018 at Nakasero based Pearl of Africa Hotel.
Organized by Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development with support from GIZ, Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) and French Development Agency, EMAs aim to recognize and reward organizations that have made major and sustainable gains in energy efficiency through the application of modern energy management principles and practices, and in the process made significant energy and cost reductions.
The wards attracted 27 companies.
Other winners included Speke Resort and Conference Centre (Best Energy Management Practice- hotels category, Stanbic Bank (Best Energy Management Practice-Services Sector), Makerere University (Best Energy Management Practice/Services Sector-University category), Stanbic Bank (Best Energy Management Practice-Commercial Buildings), Abacus Parental Drug Ltd (Fuel Savings-Medium Enterprises category), Kayonza Tea Factory (Energy Savings-Medium Enterprises category), Abacus Parental Drug Ltd (Best Energy Management Practice-Medium Enterprises) and Mukwano Industries Ltd (Fuel Savings-Large Industries).
Other winners were Roofings Ltd (Energy/Electricity Savings-Large Industries category) and Hima Cement (Best Energy Management Practice-Large Industries category).
Honey Malinga, the Director of the Directorate of Petroleum and Assistant Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy delivered the speech for the Guest of Honour, Simon D’Ujanga, the State Minister of Energy.
In his speech read by Malinga, D’Ujanga said the event is in line with one of the priorities of the Energy Ministry which focuses on efficient utilization of energy and power loss reduction.
He added that the awards are also in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 which has one of its targets as doubling the level of energy efficiency by 2030.
“You will agree with me that the issue of improving energy efficiency is now a global concern. Targets for energy efficiency have been set under Sustainable for All Agenda to which Uganda is a signatory,” the minister said.
He revealed the key drivers to this global effort. These include the ever increasing energy prices, the cost of energy efficiency services which is far less than the cost of setting up a new power plant, energy efficiency reduces operational expenses and the current usage of the biomass resource isn’t sustainable.
He further reminded guests that the key driver of EMA was the Energy Auditing Programme implemented by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development in which they have supported industries in conducting energy audits over the years.
“We believe that our programme has to a large extent stimulated the implementation of various energy management interventions and there was a need to consolidate the lessons resulting from the interventions,” he said, adding the awards have been given to enterprise that implemented the most impactful interventions.
Eng. Simon Kalanzi, the Assistant Commissioner, Ministry of Energy-Energy Efficiency and Conservation Department gave a snapshot on how the EMAs came into being.
He said around 2005-2008, Uganda was in ‘a [hydro] power crisis’ as load-shedding was the order of the day. It is at this time that the ministry thought of a solution to this problem without necessarily increasing electricity generation.
“Efforts and awareness to have power efficiency started then,” he said, adding that companies and institutions started taking energy efficiency seriously.
“Companies started paying for energy efficiency and conservation services,” he added.
He said Uganda will soon add on more power, but companies and Ugandans at large should consume what they MUST use.
“We (Ministry of Energy and government at large) are ready for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act. You will be forced to have energy efficiency and conservation services,” he said, adding the need to have these services across the country culminated into EMAs.
