Oman seeks advisor for boosting energy efficiency of government buildings

The authority has issued a Request for Proposals (RfP) seeking a proposal from interested bidders to provide advisory services for ‘Energy Efficiency Programme for Government Buildings Energy Audits & Retrofits’.

Under the RfP, the authority is seeking advisory for establishment of an Energy Services Companies (ESCOs) market in Oman, an area of high priority for the authority.

The advisor will provide the authority with a recommended working model based upon international best practices for the functioning of ESCOs in Oman. The advisor would also be required to provide the guidelines for a well-planned programme rollout for servicing 70 per cent of government Cost Reflective Tariff (CRT) customers over the next five years.

The rollout is expected to be carried out over several phases with each phase commencing with tendering to service a specific number of government buildings and ending with awarding of the tender for auditing and retrofitting of the identified government buildings to an ESCO.

In accordance with the authority’s 2018 Forward Work Program, AER intends to build further upon the various government building audits that were undertaken in 2017 and 2018 to support the government’s energy efficiency efforts.

AER stated that the results of building audits suggest that the majority of Omani government building stocks are not energy efficient. “Feedback received from building facility managers over the course of previous building audits was that it is difficult to manage energy demand in government buildings, and pressure to reduce energy use in these buildings has increased since the implementation of Cost Reflective Tariffs (CRTs).”

The energy audits of government buildings had also found that consumption during weekends was equivalent to weekdays. It further had revealed that on a few weekdays, equipment and appliances were left running resulting in electricity consumption outside the working hours.