Evaluation : Morocco energy demand management project

Evaluation covers the period 5/89-6/95 against a PACD of 9/95. The project moved from an initial emphasis on services to individual firms within several sectors to exploring more generalizable energy and natural resource conservation measures. In so doing, it has developed a base from which to undertake actions that are replicable and of policy interest. The changes in the project since 1988 reflect increased awareness that the expanding Moroccan private sector responds to economic incentives. The project has supported the private sector by using energy audits to sensitize businesses to the financial returns to energy demand management/clean technology and pollution prevention (EDM/CTPP) activities and by training Moroccan engineering consultants to carry out EDM/CTPP activities. The project has had a variety of positive impacts: sensitization of businesspeople and public officials to the benefits of EDM; reductions in costs because of project-sponsored audits, feasibility studies, boiler tune-ups, and electrical system analyses; technicians trained; pollution reductions (directly by reducing factory emissions and indirectly by reducing use of fossil fuels). In fact, electrical systems analyses have generated savings ten times their cost. Interviews with plant managers and production engineers indicate that most of the EDM/CTPP knowledge in Morocco seems traceable to the project. On the whole, interventions at the plant level have been perceived as effective and cost-saving; audits and hands-on training have also been highly appreciated. Addition of the clean technology component in 1993 made explicit the connection between energy audits and pollution prevention. One of the project's more successful intervention was at a paper factory in Tangier, where visible pollution problem was solved at the same time that energy consumption was reduced. The intervention had the interesting side effect of reducing Morocco's normally high concern with business secrecy to the point where the project was able to use the plant as a demonstration site, organizing visits of businesspeople and (even more remarkably) government officials. Nonetheless, the market is not yet driving businesses to include EDM/CTPP technologies and techniques in their cost-control strategies. Commercial demand for Moroccan engineering consultants trained in EDM/CTPP techniques is lagging, and, except for the cement industry and hotels (where energy costs are high), energy conservation is not perceived as a good investment. EDM/CTPP engineering consultants will have to incorporate their skills into broader-scope engineering consulting firms. Creation of industry cells, which can promote EDM/TCPP technologies and services, may be a good way to institutionalize sustainability. A cement industry cell supported by the project will probably carry on under its own momentum. Lessons learned are as follows. (1) Innovative approaches for implementation through private sector entities can be effective in Morocco. (2) In hindsight, it would have been useful to specify from the outset whether the twin goals of saving foreign exchange and increasing productivity by improving efficiency of energy use were short- or medium-term goals. The distinction affects the weight to be assigned to factory interventions as opposed to promotional activities. While audits had an immediate impact on energy consumption in the short term, their coverage is necessarily limited (although they may have been of considerable importance as a promotional tool). The consciousness-raising achieved by the project may have a greater impact in the medium term. (3) Less intensive and hence less expensive audits might have been preferable to the detailed audits carried out. Managers might be willing to risk 10,000-20,000 Dh for an audit, but are reluctant to go above that ceiling without careful consideration. Keeping down the unsubsidized cost of project interventions for which the private sector is supposed to pay is a theme that should be incorporated into any follow-on project.