20% progress rate of energy conservation target ― Recognize the need of further effective measures.
On June 24th, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry(METI) and the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy(ANRE) announced the progress toward realization of the energy conservation targets listed in the Energy Mix (The power supply system in FY2030). Compared to the target of reducing the final energy consumption by 50.3 million kL in terms of crude oil, the result in FY2017 was 10.73 million kL, and the progress rate was 21.3%. METI indicated that although the progress seems to be not so bad, it is necessary to take more effective measures for further progress .
On the same day, the secretariat announced at the Energy Conservation Working Group of the Advisory Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (an advisory body of METI) that the reduction amount was 1.97 million kL and the progress rate was improved by 3.9 points. ANRE explained, “If it was assumed that the amount of reduction would increase linearly until FY2030, it had to be reduced by about 28% as of FY2017.” and emphasized the need to accelerate more effective measures.
By sector, the reduction amount in the industrial sector was 2.39 million kL, the progress rate was 23.0%, the business sector was 2.53 million kL, 20.6%, the residential sector was 2.89 million kL, 18.9%, and the transportation sector was 3.62 million kL, 22.5%. In addition, it was reported that the progress rate of LED introduction exceeded 50% in all sectors.
On the other hand, in terms of the status of Energy Conservation Law, the secretariat explained the FY2018 report (the results from FY2013 to FY2017) on the business classification evaluation system (SABC evaluation system).
The ratio of S class business operators (good progress in energy management) was 56.6% (6468 persons), almost unchanged from the previous year, Class A (average) was 1.4 points down, to 27.8% (3180 persons), and Class B (Not progress) was 1.6 points up, to 15.6% (1784 business operators). ANRE takes it seriously that “the S class is slightly reduced and that the B class is increasing”, and planned to examine in detail at specialized working group.