|
Awards for Energy
Efficiency and Conservation; the Energy Club's launching
for schools; the Energy Trail event and posters for
Energy Club; a skit or short drama competition for
schools; the Energy Day Road Show in all four districts;
a smaller-scale Energy Fair in the Belait District, as
well as the Energy Forum and F-Saving Pledge.
One of the highlights
this year will be the launch of the Energy Club.
According to the permanent secretary, its establishment
at secondary schools nationwide is a joint cooperation
by the Energy Section and the Ministry of Education's
STEP Centre.
So far, 24 schools have
established the Energy Club, through which the students
would be able to learn more in depth on the importance
of being efficient and conservative in energy usage
through various activities designed towards raising
awareness in the matter.
Another objective of
the Energy Week is to initiate the E-Saving pledge where
members of the public are called to join in to pledge
and switch off any unused electrical appliances in order
to conserve energy, described by Hj Ismail, as a "step
further" in raising awareness to conserve energy.
The activity has been
launched on April 27 this year with its peak to occur
May 24, when participants would voluntarily switch off
any unused electrical appliances from 9am to 9pm.
"We want the public to
practise saving energy by switching off any unused
electrical appliances, not only during the Energy Week.
The event is just a way for us to raise their awareness
on the importance of conserving energy," said Hj Ismail.
He stated that there
are many benefits by participating. We can save energy,
we can save electricity bills, and we can prolong the
energy (gas) used to generate the power.
"A person switching off
one appliance may seem like a negligible number, but if
one person in every household does it, it is quite a
substantial amount of energy saved. We want to make it a
habit to practise, and that is why we are trying to send
this message to schools in an effort to make it a
long-term action," he added.
"Twenty-four secondary
schools have established their own Energy Club. Some of
the schools were enthusiastic. They formed the club
earlier before the launch and we were also invited to
the schools to make a presentation to the students
regarding the activities that can be done and more, and
we feel very encouraged," explained Hj Ismail.
He also said that they
are very hopeful that this initiative will be a step
forward, so that the youths who are going to be leaders
of the future generation would have the conservative
practices infused and instilled in their daily lives.
"At the moment, our
focus is to change the mindset of the public. Although
we monitor the loading, a lot of external factors
determine the power usage, such as the weather,
population and more," said Hj Ismail, as he explained
the various initiatives that would be carried out
towards conserving energy.
The initiatives include
increasing public awareness on the advantages that they
can reap by choosing to purchase a more energy-efficient
electrical appliance, which is normally more expensive
if the star rating is high, as well as the benefits and
advantages of using such appliances.
Under APEC
(Asian-Pacific Economic Commodity), the target to reduce
the consumption of energy by 25 per cent will also be
attempted. "Compared to Japan, an industrial country,
our energy consumption is much higher. So we have to
really look into this issue, which is sector-specific,
which means we can, for now, target the domestic sector
because consumption is easier to manage," he added. --
Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin |
