DEDE to replace 10,000 old air conditioners for public sector

BANGKOK, July 9 (TNA) -- Thailand's Department Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE) moves forward with its plan to conserve energy, targeting to replace 10,000 air conditioners at the government's buildings to help reduce electricity consumption by 53 million units a year. DEDE Director-general Thammayot Srichuai said his department is set to replace the old air conditioners within government agencies with the new Variable speed/ Inverter, which would help to reduce energy consumption. The DEDE would be investing a budget of 507 million baht for the project to replace 10,000 air conditioners installed in public agency's building. The department is expecting the change to help reduce electricity consumption by 53 million unite per year, helping to lower energy consumption by 212 million annually, and decrease carbon dioxide emission by 31,270 tonnes per year. The DEDE would be responsible solely for the purchasing and installing of the new air conditioners, where the agencies applying to receive the new air conditioners would have to be equipped with air conditioners that has been in operations for the past 10 years or more and the equipment must have clear registered numbering. The director-general said the DEDE is in the midst of pushing forward with its Energy Efficiency Plan (EEP) to help Thailand increase energy potential, in accordance to the long term target to trim the country's energy consumption by no less than 30 per cent within 2036. He noted that the air conditioners replacement scheme is part of the measure tin increase government buildings' energy consumption efficiency and to help lessen the country's energy consumption as a whole. (TNA)