Wednesday, Jul 19, 2017

Sharjah: Families that are at home during peak load time can save up to 50 per cent on their power bills by switching off unnecessary lights and appliances for an hour, particularly between 2.30pm and 3.30pm, which is the peak hour of power consumption, said a senior official at the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority.

Speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of the second annual Sewa Partners meet, the authority’s chairman, Dr Rashid Al Leem, said the authority’s Peak Hour campaign has proved that small changes in behaviour can make a big difference in conservation of resources.

This year, since the campaign began on July 1, Sewa has managed to save up to 40 megawatts of power on an average per day, up from 21 megawatts last year.

“The awareness level among the consumers has increased considerably, which reflects in the electricity we are saving in just one hour daily, which is 40MW. We can do much better if we get greater support and more people make the behavioural change required. With a little bit of effort, we can make a big difference; what we need is the realisation of how important saving our resources is,” said Al Leem.

He added that the word is spreading and a lot of families are showing great enthusiasm in making the effort.

“We have seen that a lot of families are very enthusiastic about this and some of them have been able to save up to 50 per cent on their electricity bills,” added Al Leem.

An estimate puts an average household consumption in the UAE to around 20KW of electricity per day and 40MW is sufficient to power up to 2,000 UAE homes for a day.

According to Anisa Farhan Al Jallaf, head of the Awareness Section at Sewa, with a little bit of planning and staggering of their household chores, people can make a lot of difference.

“What happens is most people [government employees] return home between 2.30pm and 3.30pm and they use all their appliances at the same time, which puts enormous load on the grid. Apart from keeping the AC at 24 degree Celsius, what people can do is to use their appliances at different times and avoid the peak hour. You don’t have to use your washing machines, blenders, iron all at the same time. All you have to do is to stagger your chores,” said Al Jallaf, explaining ways to reduce consumption.

Sewa’s Peak Hour campaign is part of its efforts to encourage behavioural change. The campaign started two years ago and this is the third year of the campaign.

“We initially started locally and last year we went to the other emirates and this year we even reached out to other countries in the region to create awareness. We need to raise awareness not just locally but at the regional and global level as well,” said Al Leem

He added that, apart from spreading the word, Sewa has also come up with devices that will support the change in behaviour.

“What we are doing here at Sewa is not only advising consumers about reduction in consumption, we are also providing residents with the right devices to install at homes that can help in reduction in consumption of water and electricity,” he said.

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Green bill saves 576 trees annually

By Shafaat Shahbandari

Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority’s green bill initiative that saw the authority sending utility bills only through email has helped save 576 trees, a senior official said.

According to Eman Al Khayal, manager, IT and Telecom at Sewa, the authority generates 4.8 million bills annually and saving on the paper, fuel and other resources that required in delivering the bills to the doorstep amounted to saving 576 trees besides cutting down on CO2 emissions.

“We have stopped paper bills since September 2016 this has helped in saving a lot of resources. If we can’t plant trees, we should at least save trees, which is what our initiative has managed to do. Almost 99 per cent of our customers receive the e-bills, with 65 per cent accessing it through mobiles while 32 per cent on computers,” said Al Khayal.

She added that apart from saving the resources, the green bill also gives consumers freedom when it comes to choosing the mode of payment.

“With the green bill, they can choose to pay anytime from anywhere through various modes of payment available. Since we launched the green bill, Sewa portal visit has increased by 91 per cent. So this has also resulted in saving energy, time and resources of people who would otherwise visit our branches physically to pay the bills,” she added.

by Shafaat Shahbandari Staff Reporter

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