ExxonMobil Egypt adopts a pioneering integrated energy efficiency initiative in all the company's facilities

CAIRO —  ExxonMobil Egypt organized a ceremony to announce its pioneering integrated energy efficiency initiative. The company declared as well the finalization of transforming all the traditional lighting units in Cairo Headquarters and numerous retail sites, blending plants, fuels terminals, service stations, and On the Run to LED lighting fixtures.

This leading initiative was triggered by the social responsibility role ExxonMobil Egypt is always keen to play towards the Egyptian community. The company also largely contributes to the national tendency to reduce the consumption of electricity for the sake of increasing the rationalization of the consumption of energy in all sectors to preserve the natural resources of the country and grantee their sustainability.

Dr. Mohamed Mousa Omran, First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Eng. Hesham Elamroussy, Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil Egypt and Lubricant Manager for North Africa and Middle East, Dr. Mohamed Bayoumi, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, and Dr. Ibrahim Yassin, Head of the Energy Efficiency for Lighting and Household electrical appliances Project attended the celebration ceremony. This is in addition to representatives of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and top officials from ExxonMobil Egypt.

During the ceremony, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Project, implemented by the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Resources and funded by UNDP and Global Environment Facility, honored ExxonMobil Egypt for the company's leading role as the first corporation in the petroleum sector that adopts such integrated energy efficiency initiatives.

Eng. Hesham Elamroussy, Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil Egypt and Lubricant Manager for North Africa and Middle East, expressed how happy he is to receive such an honor when he said, "ExxonMobil Egypt is proud to be one of the leading corporations in the petroleum sector that implemented an integrated Energy Efficient Lighting Project." He added that his company recognizes the importance of the rationalization of the consumption of energy in order to preserve these valuable resources and manage them in the most efferent manner to save them for the coming generations to come." 

Eng. Hesham Elamroussy pointed out to the impressive results achieved by the Energy Efficient Lighting Project in the Head Office of ExxonMobil Egypt when he stated, "This pioneering program achieved remarkable results as the saving of the consumption of electricity reached 25% of the total consumption of the building. This is estimated to be 524000 kilowatt per year, which is equivalent to 95 tons of fuel and approximately 288 tons of carbon dioxide."

It is worth mentioning that this leading project was the outcome of the fruitful cooperation between the engineering and the governmental relations' departments in ExxonMobil Egypt, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Project implemented by the Ministry of Electricity and Renewal Energy, funded by UNDP, and the and Global Environment Facility.

The beginning of the Energy Efficient Lighting Project goes back to 2015 when the lighting units of the Head Office of ExxonMobil Egypt were transformed into LED fixture. The concept was also presented to other sections of the company, like the real estate department, the fuels terminals, and service stations in order to transform all the lighting system in all the facilities of the company into LED fixtures through the different phases of implementations.  Transformation to LED reached 100% Cairo Head Office, 100% in Al Asher Plant, 95% in Alexandria Terminal, 60% in Mex Plant, 80% in Suez Terminal, Service stations. This is in addition to 20 other ongoing sites' exterior lighting and 11 On the Run interior lighting.

In this regard, Dr. Mohamed Mousa Omran, First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, praised this distinctive initiative carried out by ExxonMobil Egypt. He also stressed that the investments required for the rationalization of the consumption of energy is much less than the investments needed to increase the production of energy.  This is the main reason why his ministry exerts much effort to provide electricity and to enhance the rationalization of its consumption.

Dr. Mohamed Mousa announced as well the plan of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Resources to distribute 10.5 million LED fixtures and to update the lighting of the streets to replace them with LED units. Mousa added that the ministry would also launch a national campaign to encourage people to rationalize the consumption of electricity and raise their awareness concerning the importance and approaches to reduce the usage of energy. He noted that this would result in the provision of around 1.5 billion US Dollars  of investments that would be used to establish energy production plants and to improve the electricity networks and would also save energy that is worth one billion US Dollars.

The First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy stated that these procedures resulted in the saving of 1500 megawatt last year. He added that these types of projects that aim to enhance the energy efficiency of lighting systems created a local market to produce LED light fixtures and numerous working opportunities for the Egyptian youth. This led to an increase of more than 50 million LED bulbs.

The First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable stressed on the importance of such initiatives when he said, "The implementation of such initiatives would significantly contribute to the reduction of the consumption of energy in the administrational buildings' sector. This would help to implement this impressive initiative in many other various buildings."

Mousa also noted that there is an urging need in developing countries to preserve energy resources and guarantee its sustainability.  He also thanked all the official responsible for the implementation of the leading project of ExxonMobil Egypt in all the facilities of the company.

On this occasion, Dr. Mohamed Bayoumi, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, affirmed the positive results achieved by the project when he stated, "The positive and encouraging results of this project, which is the significant saving in the consumption of electric energy, would have a great impact on the spread of this experience in the petroleum sector in general. This is in addition to supporting the Egyptian market towards the lighting systems that save energy. This would be carried out through the international initiative adopted by the United Nations to encourage the transformation of the lighting systems in the developing countries as they are cheaper and one of the alternatives to rationalize the consumption of energy.

Dr. Mohamed Bayoumi called upon other companies to consider this achievement as an encouragement to other corporations to have the same initiative implemented by ExxonMobil Egypt towards preserving the resources of energy in Egypt and protect the environment for the sake of the coming generations.

Dr. Ibrahim Yassin, Technical Head of the Energy Efficiency Improvement Project, thanked the leaders of ExxonMobil Egypt for their leading role in improving the efficiency of the lighting system of the Head Office of the company and for the pioneering initiative adopted by the company and implemented in almost all its facilities.

It is worth mentioning that ExxonMobil Egypt supported the national electricity-saving campaign “belmaaoul” launched in 2014 under the auspices of the Petroleum and Electricity ministries aiming to preserve energy resources in the coming years, the company joined efforts with its partner NGOs, schools, universities, banks and other private sector partners to spread the awareness towards the importance of energy saving early in 2015.

Thanks to its extensive network of service stations, ExxonMobil Egypt, distributed almost half a million flyers promoting electricity-saving, reaching the general public. Furthermore in March of 2015, EME designed a new and attractive booklet and printing 75000 copies for school students to encourage electricity-saving. EME invited Injaz Egypt to take part in the campaign to reach out to students in preparatory schools, where Injaz Egypt programs are applied, to encourage positive behaviors and practices that contribute to electricity-saving under the auspices of the Education Ministry. With the approval of the Ministry of Education, Injaz Egypt succeeded in distributing the new booklets to more than 40 thousand students in 111 schools in March 2015 with Injaz environmental curriculum.