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"The joint-user buildings of Government have shown a general reduction in power consumption over the past two years," a spokesman for the Government Property Agency said today (September 28) in response to a newspaper report about the power consumption of Government buildings.
The Government Property Agency is responsible for managing 50 buildings jointly used by various Government departments, amounting to a total floor area of 918,879 sq m. "Since 2003/04, the total power consumption of these buildings has come down from 261,801,647 kWh to 257,542,949 kWh in 2004/05 and 254,276,124 kWh in 2005/06, that is, by 1.6% and 2.9% in 2004/05 and 2005/06 respectively compared with total power consumption in 2003/04," the spokesman said. "In 2005/06 alone, the saving in power consumption was 3,266,825 kWh, which is equivalent to about $3 million."
In some large joint-user buildings, total power consumption from 2003/04 has reduced by over 5%.
The spokesman also explained that changes in the power consumption of a building depend on a number of factors, including the level of occupancy and usage of the building, the number of staff working in the building and visitors, the duration of working hours, the electrical installations in the building, ambient temperatures, refurbishment and alteration works, etc.
"With increasing computerisation, office automation and growing demand for Government services in recent years, there is growing pressure on energy consumption. Nonetheless, through the adoption of a number of effective measures and with the cooperation of all the user-departments, we have managed to contain the growth in energy consumption and achieved savings over the last two years," the spokesman added.
"Such measures include conducting energy audits on buildings, carrying out energy-saving works such as installing energy-saving lighting, modifying air-conditioning installations to achieve greater efficiency, and adopting housekeeping practices like setting the air-conditioning temperature at 25.5 degrees Celsius, switching off electrical and electronic equipment when it is not in use and designating an officer in each office to ensure lights and electrical equipment are turned off at the end of the working day.
"Despite the success in reversing the growing power consumption in Government office buildings, there is no room for complacency," the spokesman said. "We will continue to work with our property management agents and user departments to identify new opportunities and achieve further savings in power consumption," he said.
Ends/Thursday, September 28, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:23
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