Second Quarterly Narrative Report: April 1, 2015 – June 30, 2015

The project's overarching goal is to introduce the principles of energy management to selected Macedonian industries based on the ISO 50001:2011 standard. The project's approach focuses on reducing energy consumption using a systematic and sustainable way founded on ISO 50001:2011 principles and methods. During the second quarter of 2015, the project continued to implement the energy management system at Duropack, a corrugated board manufacturer and production facility. The energy management system at Duropack includes tracking energy consumption of four energy carriers: electricity, steam, compressed air, and natural gas. The system was commissioned with USAID representatives on May 5, 2015. In addition, the project finished and commissioned the energy management system at Kolid International, a food processing factory, and Messer Vardar Tehnogas, an industrial gases manufacturer. At these companies, the project installed energy management systems for tracking electricity consumption. The project also invested significant effort and time to meet the initial commitment of management teams of a dozen other candidate companies and develop blueprints of plant's energy infrastructure, project plans, and EnMS cost specifications. Although a number of candidate companies did not decide to pursue energy management systems with USAID cost-sharing assistance, they have readily available project documentation that they could use in the future. The project continued to offer assistance to pilot companies for development of energy efficiency upgrade projects. In the reporting period, the project obtained agreements from Kolid International and Nova Refraktori on energy improvements both companies wanted to pursue. The project experts conducted energy audits and collected data on energy use and other technical inputs to perform data analysis and report. The project organized a two-day workshop on ISO 50001:2011 key concepts, which was held at the Continental Hotel in Skopje on June 22-23, 2015. The workshop was organized and conducted in cooperation with UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization). During the reporting period, the USAID Macedonia website regularly posted news about the Industrial Management Project events, activities, and presentations. The project also used the Facebook page of the USAID mission in Macedonia to timely inform the public of its activities. The Macedonian energy sector is in a transitional phase from a centrally planned and managed structure to a decentralized, regulated free market. The key challenge of the country's energy sector is to improve the efficiency of energy usage, which has been held back by below-market pricing for all but the largest users. On the supply side, the challenges encountered include limited range of options for energy supply due to the country's lack of oil, gas, or high-quality coal reserves, and aging energy generation facilities. Recent reforms are helping to address these issues, and the country is committed to further reforms to bring about the full liberalization of the energy market. Industrial manufacturing companies in Macedonia are quickly coming to realize that energy and sustainability issues are a critical requirement for the competitiveness and even survival of their businesses. Using one third of all the energy consumed in Macedonia on an annual basis, with high price volatility and stiff regional and EU competition for market share, Macedonian industries need to better understand their energy consumption patterns and adopt organizational capabilities to better manage their use.