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Following is a question by the Hon Law Chi-kwong and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (December 10) :

Question :

Regarding the management of energy demand, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the details and the progress of various programmes or measures on the management of energy demand implemented by the Administration, as well as the annual amount of public funds spent on them;

(b) whether it has assessed and quantified the effectiveness of such programmes and measures; if it has, of the results of the assessment and quantification, including whether there have been changes in the public's habits in the use of energy and the consumption trends of various types of energy; if it has not, the reasons for that;

(c) of the impacts on and the benefits to the public due to the implementation of such programmes and measures; and

(d) of the long-term plans it has formulated in the management of energy demand?

Answer:

Madam President,

(a) The Government's effort in managing energy demand is mainly focussed on reducing energy consumption by encouraging the community to use more energy efficient equipment. We also encourage electricity consumers to even out the demand over different hours of a day to optimise the efficiency of electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities.

Apart from educational and promotional programmes that raise public awareness, we are implementing a wide range of programmes that directly or indirectly help reduce overall energy consumption. The major initiatives include -

* The Energy Efficiency Labelling Scheme equips the consumers with energy consumption information of various products to help them make informed choices. The Scheme now covers passenger cars, eight types of household appliances and three types of office equipment. We are extending the Scheme to cover more commodities from time to time.

* We promote water-cooled air conditioning systems, which are more energy efficient than their air-cooled counterparts. Commercial buildings in 54 designated areas may now apply for using fresh water in evaporative cooling towers of water-cooled air-conditioning systems. We are also reviewing the capacity of water supply infrastructure in other areas. If the additional demand can be met, we will allow buildings in more areas to use fresh water cooling towers. We are also exploring the feasibility of implementing district-wide cooling systems in a couple of districts.

* The Hong Kong Efficiency Registration Scheme for Buildings, underpinned by five sets of Building Energy Codes, is a voluntary registration scheme that encourages innovative energy efficiency design in commercial buildings.

* We are also encouraging the government departments and bureaux to set a good example and reduce energy consumption as far as possible.

In parallel, the Government entered into a three-year Demand Side Management (DSM) Agreement with each power company in end May 2000. The DSM programmes, launched on 1 July 2000 and expired in June 2003, include:

* Non-residential Energy Efficient Lighting Rebate Programmes

* Non-residential Energy Efficient Heating, Ventilating and Air-conditioning Rebate Programmes

* General education / informational programmes on DSM

* Market surveys for DSM planning

The rebate programmes under the DSM Agreement provide financial incentives to encourage the non-residential users to install more energy efficient equipment and devices to shift part of the electricity demand to non-peak hours. Applications for the rebate programmes ended on 30 June 2003. More than 4000 applications have been approved.

The non-rebate programmes under the DSM Agreement disseminate educational information on energy efficiency and conservation to all sectors of the community, in particular, the students, and conduct surveys for planning of future programmes. They will be completed before end December 2003.

It is difficult to work out the exact amount of public money spent on Government's energy saving programmes each year as these programes require contributions and participations of a large number of departments.

The total estimated cost of all DSM programmes of the power companies is about HK$139 M as at end October 2003. Except for liaison, supervision and monitoring, no public money is involved.

(b) It is estimated that the total energy consumption of Hong Kong was reduced by 1310 TJ, or $330 million, in 2002 because of the implementation of the above energy saving programmes.

(c) The rebate DSM programmes of the power companies effectively encourage some non-residential users to invest in energy efficient installations (such as more energy efficient lighting equipment and air-conditioning systems). The benefit of the energy saving lasts well beyond the conclusion of the DSM programmes.

Other programmes facilitate the public's deployment of more energy efficient equipments and enhance the public awareness of energy efficient appliances and technologies.

(d) The Government will continue to promote energy efficiency and conservation. Apart from public education, we will further facilitate the wider use of water-cooled air conditioning systems and extend the Energy Labelling schemes to cover more types of equipments and commodities.

After the conclusion of the three-year DSM programmes, the power companies will also continue to commit resources to implement public education and informational programmes for disseminating the benefits of energy efficiency and introducing various energy management techniques to all sectors of the community.

Ends/Wednesday, December 10, 2003

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