The Tainan City Government yesterday unveiled policies to cut electricity consumption by the private sector and government agencies.
The policies are in response to an energy conservation initiative launched by the Executive Yuan and include incentive programs to improve the public’s electricity use habits and penalties for businesses that fail to meet the municipal government’s energy efficiency requirements.
City officials and representatives from private entities that consume more than 800 kilowatts (kW) monthly yesterday met at a hypermarket in the city’s Anping District (安平) to pledge to reduce the city’s commercial energy use by 2 percent by March next year to reach the Executive Yuan’s energy conservation goal.
The initiative, proposed in April, has a budget of NT$3 billion (US$94.7 million) to subsidize and reward energy conservation efforts by local governments.
Tainan Economic Development Bureau Director-General Fang Ching-cheng (方進呈) said that according to the initiative, the city aims to reduce electricity use by 129 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), of which households, the private sector and government agencies are expected to cut down about 71 million kWh, 48 million and 10 million kWh respectively.
He said that the city in June ordered that about 28,300 stores in the municipality to insulate their air conditioners, set air conditioners to no less than 26oC and replace all incandescent light bulbs.
Inspectors are to visit the stores to verify whether they have met the three requirements, he said, adding that outfits that fail to make improvements within a given timeframe would be fined between NT$20,000 and NT$100,000 as stipulated in the Energy Administration Act (能源管理法).
For small and medium-sized enterprises, the establishment that marks the biggest cut in energy use compared with electricity consumed in the same period last year is to receive a cash reward of NT$200,000, he said.
Fang said that energy conservation efforts in all 37 districts would be evaluated and those that cut energy consumption by more than 3 percent would receive a reward of NT$50,000 each month until November.
The Syuejia (學甲) and Guanmiao (關廟) districts fared the best in an evaluation last month and received NT$500,000 each, he said, adding that a district would receive a total of NT$4.3 million if it consistently topped the ranking.
Regarding government agencies, conservation policies implemented mainly target public servants’ habits when using air conditioners and computers to achieve optimal energy efficiency. For example, setting air conditioners to a fixed room temperature and ensuring that the power-saving mode is activated on all computers are both habits that have been mandated.
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