The International Finance Cooperation (IFC), through the Environmental Business Finance Program (EBEP), was promoting a project to support marketing, development, and financing of Energy Efficiency projects (EE), and equipment and the conversion to natural gas (NG). The project targeted the commercial and industrial sector end users in Egypt.
As part of this project, there was a need to identify and demonstrate the potential size of sustainable and viable activities in EE and natural gas conversion for SMEs. The SMEs under study were mainly in 6th of October and Borg al-Arab, the two industrial cities within the scope of the project.
The Egyptian consultancy consortium, Environics in association with Tarsheed (National Energy Corporation, Egypt, NECE), were contracted to conduct a Market Assessment of SME Energy Efficiency Potential in Egypt.
The market assessment of SME energy efficiency potential in Egypt mainly entailed the following activities:
o Conducting a market survey for EE and natural gas conversion potential in the SMEs of 6th of October and Borg al-Arab industrial cities
o Conducting EE audits for selected industrial facilities
o Preparing pre-feasibility studies for selected EE projects
The market survey included an extensive review of relevant documents; an analysis of the energy consumption patterns of significant industrial sectors in the study areas; an investigation and analysis of the recently implemented and future planned EE and NG conversion projects at the studied facilities; an analysis of the attitudes of facilities’ owners/managers to investing in EE and NG conversion projects, and bank borrowing; a presentation of the barriers to implementing EE projects, and conclusions and recommendations on the potentials for EE and NG conversion, and bank borrowing.
The EE audits, which were conducted for eight facilities, entailed reviewing available background information on the facilities, then conducting company site visits. During the site visits, field researchers met with key personnel to investigate the industrial processes and future plans for improvement and extension, verified the environmental/energy aspects of the facility’s operations, and gathered all required data. The impacts of the industrial operations at the facilities were analyzed before and after the implementation of measures and planned projects. Audit reports were prepared to include the analyses and the comprehensive surveys of the facilities.
Pre-feasibility studies were conducted for the EE projects of five facilities. These studies comprehensively assessed the financial viabilities of the proposed projects through analyzing the industrial processes and energy consumptions, and investigating the risks associated with the investments.