38 Million Baht Saved In Energy Costs Over The Past 8 Months

[Jai Dee]

DEDE has helped save energy usage by over 30 million baht

The Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE) has revealed that the energy conservation project for this year has reduced electricity usage by 6.4 million units over the past eight months. The department has applauded 101 small and medium enterprises for trimming down their energy usage by around 38 million baht.

DEDE has awarded certificates to small and medium business and industrial operators in Thailand who have taken part in the energy conservation project for the current fiscal year. The investment for this project is only 11.3 million baht and the period for return on investment is 0.3 per year.

Mr. Prawit Thithakaew, the Deputy Director-General of DEDE, said the project exceeds the target by 20 million baht, and this is because more people have become more interested in saving energy.

The project will carry on and is expected to receive more than 150 SMEs next year.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 7 July 2006

[penzman]

The aircon still gets turned off between 12:00- 1:00 pm. at the licence bureau, even though the room is packed full of people and workers. I happened to be walking in when a wave of people rushed out, and we had to back up and get away from the doors. I doubt this measure saves any energy at all as the aircon will kick back in later on and work non-stop.

I had never experienced this before: taking a break on a Bangkok sidewalk, getting a cool refreshing breeze from the cold air coming from building entrances. Now that's wasted energy.

I still see people turning off refrigerators when closing up and plugging them back in the next morning. They may want to educate people on that. The fridge will work harder the next morning than it would have if it had been plugged in all night.

One thing I've been thinking about lately is the amount of fuel wasted by people driving around with pick-up trucks, burning huge amounts of fuel to sell vegetables, fish and other products. This , in my opinion, is a big contributor to wasting energy. They obviously cover the cost of fuel but only to make minimal profits.

Television seems to be the way to educate people around these parts but I haven't seen any ad campaigns so fa,r giving people tips on saving energy. If they did spend on some advertisement, they would surely come up with better numbers than shown above.

Please. pleaaaase get rid of that stupid law forbidding the purchase of fuel at gas stations past 10 pm.