Energy Efficiency Project in the West African Industrial Sector

Under the Programme de coopération climatique internationale (PCCI, International Climate Cooperation Program) established by the Government of Quebec, Econoler was granted a subsidy to implement the projet d’efficacité énergétique dans le secteur industriel (PEEI, Industrial Sector Energy Efficiency Project) in French member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The project was aimed at accelerating the development of the EE market in the industrial sector of eight French countries in the subregion through awareness-raising and capacity building activities among key stakeholders. The project was also aimed at establishing pilot projects for the implementation of energy management systems based on the ISO 50001 standard in selected industries. Developing the EE market in the West African context is important because it will help abate final energy consumption in the industrial sector, which is expected to greatly increase by 2040 according to International Energy Agency projections.

Components 1 and 2 of the project consisted of raising awareness and reinforcing capacity among key stakeholders in the public and private sectors of the selected countries as well as providing them with technical tools to foster the EE market in French West Africa. Under Component 3, Econoler conducted energy audits as part of pilot projects in four manufacturing companies to reinforce their capacity to structure and install energy management systems based on ISO 50001. The manufacturing companies were selected from the food processing, construction material, and machinery assembly subsectors as well as the pharmaceutical and automobile industries. Activities under the PEEI contributed to achieving three main immediate objectives:

• Objective 1: Reinforce the capacity of policymakers and other key stakeholders in the industrial sector by elaborating and implementing incentive policies to foster the adoption of energy management good practices based on the ISO 50001 international standard and the use of energy performance contracts (EPCs) and how to design such contracts.
• Objective 2: Train private-sector actors in the establishment of energy service companies (ESCOs), the use of EPCs, as well as the measurement and verification of EE measures.
• Objective 3: Conduct energy audits and support the implementation of a pilot energy management system project based on ISO 50001 in four companies.