Energy Productivity: Evaluating Large-Scale Building Energy Efficiency Programs in Oman

About the Project

Increasing energy productivity holds some of the greatest possibilities for enhancing the welfare countries get out of their energy systems. It also recasts energy efficiency in terms of boosting competitiveness and wealth, more powerfully conveying its profound benefits to society. KAPSARC and UNESCWA have initiated this project to explore the energy productivity potential of the Arab region, starting with the six GCC countries and later extending to other countries. Aimed at policymakers, this project highlights the social gains from energy productivity investments, where countries are currently at, and pathways to achieving improved performance in this area.

Key Points

More than 75 percent of the total electricity consumed in Oman is attributed to buildings, with almost 50 percent used by households. The absence of mandatory energy efficiency regulations for buildings, coupled with population growth, has led to a significant increase in annual energy consumption and peak power demand in the country – both averaging growth rates of 10 percent over the last five years. We used an energy productivity analysis approach to analyze the benefits of large-scale energy efficiency programs in new and existing buildings. Our study finds:

Investment in energy efficiency measures to retrofit existing buildings could lead to significant economic and environmental benefits. The potential for energy savings will vary depending on implementation costs and scale of retrofits. The benefits that can be realized for residential buildings are significantly higher than those obtained for commercial or governmental buildings.

If a minimal Level-1 energy retrofit program is applied to existing residential buildings, savings of 957 GWh/year in electricity consumption and 214 MW in peak power demand can be achieved. Moreover, if a Level-3 deep retrofit of energy efficiency measures is implemented for the residential sector, savings soar to 6,000 GWh/year in electricity consumption and 1,300 MW in peak power demand. Also, 4 million metric tonnes per year of carbon emissions will be eliminated.

A Level-3 retrofit of the entire building stock in Oman can result in savings of 10,000 GWh/year in electricity consumption and 2,300 MW in peak power demand. Additionally, there would be a 7 million metric tonnes per year of reduction in carbon emissions

The economic impact of the buildings' energy efficiency retrofit program is the potential to create new employment in Oman. The direct effects for retrofitting buildings include jobs needed to implement energy efficiency measures while the indirect effects are associated with work needed to produce and supply energy efficiency equipment and materials.