$140 million investment to save $46m worth of energy per year

FE Report | Published: May 08, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Energy saving investment in Bangladesh's 120 industries is possible with an amount of $ 140 million which will potentially save $46 million worth of energy per year within a payback period of three years.
Tetra Tech, an internationally reputed energy audit company disclosed this Wednesday in a workshop on capacity building of the financial institutions in financing energy efficiency projects held at the ADB Resident Mission in the city.
The energy audit was conducted under a technical assistance (TA) agreement signed between IIDFC and ADB to identify bankable energy efficiency projects in 6 sectors.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), Industrial and Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IIDFC) Ltd. and Tetra Tech Es Inc. jointly organised the event.
It was the second of the series of three workshops under the programme "Bangladesh Industrial Energy Efficiency Financing" which has been undertaken to improve energy efficiency of local industries and create an enabling environment for financing energy efficiency projects. Earlier on April 04, 2013, the first workshop was arranged to create awareness among the financial institutions on this new area of financing.
Apart from high officials from ADB, IIDFC and Tetra Tech, more than 50 participants from 20 financial institutions attended the workshop. The capacity building workshop focused on the different financing tools and financing mechanisms of energy efficiency projects. The participants were provided with soft-wares, especially designed for financing and sensitivity analysis, which the participants would be able to use in preparing appraisal for energy efficiency projects in future. Hands-on training was also provided to the participants of the workshop to make them familiar with the tools.   
Mr. M Matiul Islam, Chairman, IIDFC, chaired the programme and delivered the keynote address in which he acknowledged the contribution of ADB in facilitating the energy efficiency program in Bangladesh. He expressed that the workshop would build capacity of the participants in preparing project appraisal of energy efficiency projects using the newly designed software. While Ms. Juliette, Investment Specialist of ADB, briefly mentioned the background as well as objective of the program and Mr. Md. Asaduzzaman Khan, Managing Director of IIDFC, gave an overview of the present financing environment including the interest of industries in availing finance from financial institutions and banks under the changed scenario after election. He also mentioned that the active cooperation and support from entrepreneurs and financing organisations would pave the way for success of this ADB initiative.
"Both the entrepreneurs and financiers must realise that financing under energy efficiency program would protect their respective interests and make their projects more viable and market competitive," Mr Khan added.
Mr. Rakesh Kumar Goyal, Director of Tetra Tech ES Inc., presented industrial energy efficiency market of Bangladesh, which has immense potential in the context of energy crisis. He also detailed the opportunities and challenges of energy efficiency financing and tried to give way outs for overcoming these challenges.
Mr. Shafiqul Alam, Deputy Manger, Energy Efficiency & Carbon Finance of IIDFC, elaborately discussed the energy audits and the different financing mechanisms for financing energy efficiency projects.  He also discussed the parameters which the financial institutions would like to look while financing such projects.
The financial manual was released which presented 12 tools based on high potential opportunities for industrial sectors.
Mr. Sumedh Agarwal, Manager, Tetra Tech, went through on the operating procedures of financial tools and also presented different software tools and how to operate it under different assumptions and/or scenarios.