The Regional Energy Efficiency Programme (PREE) was launched on August 22nd 2017 in Antananarivo, Madagascar. This programme is based on the National Energy Efficiency Program (PNEE) in Mauritius which conducts energy audits in businesses in the private sector.
The PNEE is co-managed by Business Mauritius and the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities. It is currently funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and it plans to conduct 100 audits in three important sectors of activity: textile, hospitality and the retail industry. It also aims to carry out audits in industries that use steam, cold, compressed air, motors, pumps and fans, solar water heating.
The launching ceremony was the perfect occasion for the Secretary-General of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) Hamada Madi and the CEO of Mauritius Business Raj Makoond to sign a partnership agreement concerning the implementation of the Regional Energy Efficiency Programme. The PREE and the PNEE have the same goals concerning the region’s economic actors. This initiative fits into the activities of the regional IOC-ENERGIES program which seeks to involve the private sector in the promotion of renewable energy.
Based on the experiment carried out in Mauritius, the IOC wants to propose to the manufacturing and services sector of the member states to carry out in a cooperative way the mapping of the potential energy efficiency areas as a first step.
‘This regional efficiency program is a concrete example of the usefulness of our regional cooperation […] and a real sustainable growth lever for our industries and our countries’ has declared Hamada Madi, General Secretary at the launching ceremony.
‘The economic operators must be supported in their effort for responsible, wise, in one word efficient energy consumption’, he added.
These economic operators will thus be able to cut down their operation costs and reinforce their sustainable actions, in line with the constraints of the energy sector of the Indianoceanic islands.