Astana, Kazakhstan – The national experts of Kazakhstan on energy efficiency and energy saving attended a technical workshop “Quality Control of Energy Audits for the Industry” organised jointly by the EU’s SECCA project and the Electric Power and Energy-Saving Development Institute (EEDI) of Kazakhstan.
The SECCA project has established cooperation with EEDI in summer 2023 with an overall objective to introduce an improved energy audits quality control system for the industry in Kazakhstan.
Energy audits are an essential tool to achieve energy savings. They assess the existing energy consumption and identify ways to improve energy efficiency (EE). Properly conducted energy audits result in a list of recommendations for sustainable and efficient energy use, which has many benefits for industry, as well as populations and the environment around. It helps industrial enterprises become less energy- and resource-intensive, thus decreasing production costs and increasing performance and profitability. It fosters innovation and investments, increasing a company’s comparative advantage on the market. Last but not least, EE significantly reduces harmful emissions, which cause climate change and degradation of human health and the environment.
SECCA’s Senior expert in Energy auditing Mr Karolis Januševičius has been assigned to map out the country’s existing energy audit quality control system and identify possible gaps and improvement opportunities. He reported on initial findings at the workshop: “Kazakhstan’s energy audit system for industry is noteworthy, standing as one of the most advanced in the region. However, the untapped potential exists to elevate the quality of these audits even further, and it is the right time to take action. Doing so could unlock greater value for the industrial sector and contribute meaningfully to the nation’s economic and energy goals. It’s encouraging to see that EEDI take a proactive approach by exploring and adapting EU and Energy Community best practices to enrich the local context”.
Based on the experience and best practices of the EU and Energy Community countries and by involving the local experts of EEDI, the SECCA project aims to contribute to the improvement of the quality assurance system for energy audits in industry.
During the workshop, the participants discussed key elements of a quality management system, value delivered through energy audits, the initial assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the current quality control of energy audits in Kazakhstan, potential changes to the current setup and potential barriers and solutions for implementing proposed improvements.
The workshop agenda is available here.
