Lahore: The Punjab province government has decided to modify the prevalent building codes on energy conservation in line with local climatic conditions of the province. These new building codes aim to help large or high-rise buildings to conserve energy and reduce burden on the national grid as various studies suggest nearly 40 percent energy is consumed by residential and commercial buildings with 32 percent and 28 percent consumed by the industry and transport sectors.
Under the provincial energy department, the government recently established the Punjab Energy Efficiency and Conservation Agency (PEECA) to chalk out a programme intended to create awareness about energy efficiency and conservation measures, to conduct energy audits and to revise the Energy Conservation Building Codes (ECBC) according to the local environmental conditions. PEECA has initiated a process to acquire the services of a consulting firm to put in place a policy for enabling compliance of building codes on energy conservation for new constructions or expansions.
Official documents indicate the consulting firm will collect data from different national and international resources like the Building Code of Pakistan, Energy Provision 2011; National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS); Pakistan Environmental Planning and Architectural (PEPAC) documents; Pakistan Green Building Guidelines; American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
The company will scrutinise the available data and check its applicability for the province, incoherence with different parameters such as weather, construction material and energy management and determine a baseline case for Punjab before preparing its report on ECBC. Documents show the overall duration for the assignment will be four months from the date of the signing of agreement between PEECA and the consulting firm.
