「Synergy Energy Efficiency Index」 Energy Efficiency Show Improvements in the Residential Sector and Declines in the Commercial Sector

World Green Organisation announced today that the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’, sponsored by Synergy Groups Holdings International Ltd. (stock code: 1539), showed a 3% improvement in energy efficiency in the residential sector, when isolating certain factors for consideration, such as the increase of household number, private and public housing number and weather effect. In contrast, energy efficiency in the commercial sector declined 10% in 2013 compared to that of 2000, when isolating the above mentioned similar factors for consideration. This shows that the commercial sector still has a lot of room for improvement, especially in emerging segments such as data centers and University campuses.

The ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’, sponsored by the Synergy Group Holdings International Ltd, was researched by World Green Organisation, in collaboration with Dr. William Chung Siu Wai, Director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Research Unit and Associate Professor in the Department of Management Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong. The index, applying a decomposition analysis, is to find out how different factors such as weather, household number and floor area played a role in affecting the energy consumption from 2000 to 2013.

According to Dr. William Yu, Chief Executive Officer of WGO,

Energy consumption in commercial sector is affected by a combination of different factors, such as the distribution of different land uses in a building (with different number of offices, retail, restaurants, etc.), its floor area, and fluctuations in temperature and so on. As the society is being more concerned with energy saving effectively, we need a more accurate scientific analysis to explore the detailed causes of energy consumption changes, and no longer making the conclusion that the society has been well saving energy or not, based on the overall energy consumption increases or decreases only.

The ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’ is a scientific tool to help analyse the behavioral changes that cause differences in energy consumption. For example, if the energy consumption of the residential sector rose by 100 units from 2000 to 2013, the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’ can specifically analyse the 100 unit increase was, to what extent, due to temperature changes, growth in household numbers, or other factors.

Dr. William Yu (left), CEO of World Green Organisation and Mr. Arthur Lam (right), Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Synergy Group, announced the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’ of 2013, which found that compared to 2003, the residential sector’s energy efficiency was improved by 3%, while the commercial sector was declined by 10%.

According to Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD)’s Hong Kong End-use Data, energy consumption of the residential sector in Hong Kong rose from 49,066 terajoules in 2000 to 59,458 terajoules in 2013 (total increase of 10,392 terajoules, 21%). Using this data, the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’ found that this increase was mostly due to the surge in number of households. During the 13-year period, accumulative of 11,552 terajoules of energy was increased as a result of the rise in household numbers, while 365.7 terajoules was due to increase in temperature. Even though the overall energy consumption increased, the energy intensity of residential sector (energy consumption per households) improved and as a result the energy efficiency has improved by 1,525.8 terajoules, or 3%.

In other words, household doing the same activity in 2013 was using 3% less energy than they did in 2000. This means the residential sector doing the same activity in 2013 is only using 97% of the energy used in 2000.

The index was further used to analyse the energy performance of different housing sectors including public housing, private buildings, and subsidised housing (e.g. HOS flats). Studies found that the energy efficiency of public housing, private buildings and other buildings has improved, except the subsidised housing’ performance has turned worst.

The index also analysed the energy efficiency in commercial sector. From 2000 to 2013, the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’ for the commercial sector was found to be 110%. This means that for the same activity done in 2013 is using 10% more energy in 2000. To be more specific, the commercial sector’s energy consumption increased by 25,921 terajoules. Out of that, 11,083 terajoules were related to the expansion of commercial floor area. The energy intensity (energy consumption per square meter), was also increased by 10,598.8 terajoules, during the last 13 years, meaning the energy efficiency in commercial sector was lowered by 10%.

In an in-depth analysis of the energy efficiency performance in different sectors, the index found that performance in the office, catering and retail sector categories improved, whereas ‘other business sectors’ category, including education, healthcare, public services, hotels, warehouses, railway stations, data centers, theme parks, etc. performance declined in energy efficiency. From 2000 to 2013, the ‘other business sectors’ category’s energy intensity increased by 25,036.6 terajoules.

Dr. Yu notes that the energy efficiency improvements in traditional business sectors (offices, catering, and retail) may be related to the use of energy-saving products in these sectors. For example, many businesses have switched to LED lamps in 2012 and 2013. However, emerging segments, such as the expansion of community colleges and university campuses, as well as the rise of data centers due to increasing popularity of multi-media mobile phone applications, have contributed to the deteriorated performance of ‘other business sectors’ category’s energy efficiency.

Dr. William Yu (left), CEO of World Green Organisation announced the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’, in which was researched in collaboration with the Energy and Environmental Policy Research Unit in the Department of Management Sciences of City University of Hong Kong, to help promote Hong Kong as a low carbon city.

Dr. William Yu (left), CEO of World Green Organisation, said the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’ is a scientific tool that analyse the root causes of energy consumption changes and help propose effective energy saving solutions.

World Green Organisation has noticed that the EMSD has split up some sectors such as education category, and listed energy usage figures for each sector for the ‘Hong Kong Energy End-use Data.” commented Dr. Yu, who welcomes that the EMSD to continue separating each segment to help the academia conduct further analysis. Dr. Yu also proposes that the EMSD should expand the scope of the separation as

Energy saving is the most effective and rapid way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We must improve energy efficiency by obtaining accurate data to know how to make Hong Kong a low-carbon city.

Mr. Arthur Lam, Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Synergy Group, believes that

Through scientific analysis, the ‘Synergy Energy Efficiency Index’ will become an important reference to the trend in energy saving’s performance in difference sectors of Hong Kong. Unlike the past complicated data analysis, this index will help the residential and commercial sector understand their energy efficiency performance easier than before.

About Us
The World Green Organisation (WGO) is an independent non-governmental organization concerned with environmental conservation and environmentally related livelihood and economic affairs by proposing an integrated, three-pronged solution that combines social, environmental, and economic aspects, leading to an environmental revolution. Through science-based policy research and community projects, WGO aims to enhance the quality of the environment, promote a greener economy, and improve people’s livelihood. In particular, it will focus on the social concerns of underprivileged groups and the creation of a green economy to help realize its vision of sustainable development.

The City University of Hong Kong’s Energy and Environmental Policy Research Unit was established in response to the increasing end-use energy consumption as well as the government’s international commitment to reduce energy intensity (like reducing energy intensity by at least 25% by 2030 with 2005 as the base year in joint effort to tackle the climate change reduction in energy intensity in Hong Kong) and tackle issues of climate change. The research unit was developed to study and formulate formulating a comprehensive energy policy that address energy demand and supply, and related issues including transport, environment and technology innovation. A comprehensive energy policy should be able to ensure a safe, secure, reliable and cost effective energy supply under sustainable development environment.

Synergy Group Holdings International Ltd. (stock code: 1539) is a leading integrated energy management solutions provider based in Hong Kong. In addition to specialising in different lighting solutions, Synergy Group also trades its lighting products to their customers and provides carbon audition to install the intended lighting products. It offers services to a number of industries and multinational companies to over 20 different countries including Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Fiji, etc. Synergy Group has become one of the leading energy management contract providers in Asia and the first ESCO Company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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