​A national initiative to reduce residential energy consumption by 5%

The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation "KAHRAMAA", represented by the National Program for Conservation and Energy Efficiency "Tarsheed", launched a new national initiative to reduce electricity and water consumption in the residential sector by 5%.

This initiative aims to achieve environmental sustainability in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the UN global Sustainable Development Goals. It also strives to raise community awareness and ensure efficient electricity and water consumption in the State of Qatar. It will further accelerate efforts to reduce consumption, and results will be announced in the first half of 2022. ​

During a press conference, Public Relations and Communication Manager at KAHRAMAA, Mohammed Ali Al-Mohannadi, reiterated KAHRAMAA’s eagerness to introduce all necessary initiatives to increase efficiency and improve operational processes to provide the best possible services to customers, and to preserve and leverage Qatar’s natural resources and avoid their depletion. Al-Mohannadi stressed the importance of the new initiative, which will allow for energy sustainability as envisaged in QNV 2030 and the National Strategy 2018-2022.

He further said that the initiative will enhance the culture of rationalization of consumption that Tarsheed aims to enshrine into society so as to become an integral and indispensable part of daily life, in order to gradually build a balanced consumption pattern where everyone shoulder their responsibility towards rationalization. He added that the initiative will have an important role in raising awareness of methods of rationalizing consumption, preserving the environment, and sustaining its natural balance for current and future generations to attain the comprehensive development that Qatar seeks to achieve.

For his part, the Director of the Department of Conservation and Energy Efficiency, Eng. Abdulaziz Al-Hammadi, indicated that the initiative is closely associated with the Qatar’s sustainability goals, the 17 SDGs and the goals of the Paris Agreement signed by the State of Qatar to reduce its carbon footprint and combat climate change, especially with regard to the 6th goal, "Clean Water and Sanitation”, the 7th goal, "Affordable and Clean Energy”, the 11th goal, “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, and the 13th goal, “Climate Action”. 

Al-Hammadi added that it is important to implement all available solutions to preserve natural resources, water, and electricity, which is the core mission of Tarsheed since its inception until now.  He also indicated that the new initiative will be groundbreaking in terms of results in the residential sector, if it succeeds in reaching the desired reduction, which is estimated at 5% for both electricity and water consumption, and he urged all segments of society to cooperate in order to translate the desired goals into reality.

According to him, the initiative mainly aims to raise awareness of energy efficiency, considering that electricity and water are a priceless blessing, and their preservation and sustainability requires cooperation and solidarity. It also sheds light on available low-cost scientific solutions and takes into consideration the pattern of consumption and the housing type of each participant.  

The initiative seeks to achieve 3 goals: environmental sustainability by reducing harmful emissions and preserving natural resources, and finally community development by introducing energy efficiency as a community lifestyle.

The initiative will be implemented in 2021 and 2022 in four basic phases. The first phase which extends until May 20, 2021 includes introducing the initiative, its goals, expected results, and filling out the residential consumption questionnaire on the Tarsheed link on KAHRAMAA’s website: https://km.qa/Tarsheed/Pages/SavingWithTarsheed.aspx

The second phase which runs from May 20, 2021 to July 31, 2021 will analyze the results of the questionnaires and consumption remarks and will include the launch of an interactive platform on the Tarsheed page on KAHRAMAA’s website to follow up on the participants and to answer questions on how to reduce 5% of the electricity and water consumption in every household.

During the third phase, from August 1, 2021 to January 31, 2022, an interactive platform will be launched through an electronic application. This will provide a plan designed for each customer to achieve electricity and water efficiency based on the number of electrical appliances and the type of water tools available in the house. 

The fourth and final phase, that will take place from February 1, 2022 to March 1, 2022, will include evaluation and announcement of results.

Engineer Mohammed Al Sharshani, Head of the Technical Department at Tarsheed said that they expect the initiative to achieve effective results if electricity saving reaches 5%, which is an estimated 600 gigawatts hours. He also anticipated that 11 million cubic meters of water would be saved upon reaching 5% of efficiency rate, and about 0.4 million tons of CO2 emissions, while financial savings will total around QR 212mn.

To make the initiative a success, KAHRAMAA recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japanese corporation Marubeni to establish a smart platform for energy efficiency, which will contribute to supporting the efforts of the National Program for Conservation and Energy Efficiency "Tarsheed".