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Eskom committed to powering sustainable tourism

Empowering an industry
Eskom is strategically committed to empowering owners of B&Bs, guest houses, lodges and hotels through access to funding and knowledge of how to optimise energy usage, reduce operating costs and lessen the impact of their operations on the environment. Improved energy efficiency — in all sectors of the economy — assists Eskom to maintain the delicate balance between the supply and demand of electricity.

Building partnerships
Escalating costs and an emphasis on environmental sustainability are putting businesses in the hospitality industry under increasing pressure to improve the energy, resource and operational efﬁciencies of their establishments.

Through partnerships with Hotelstuff.co.za, the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (FEDHASA) - the custodian of the lmvelo Awards — and the Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme (STPP), Eskom strives to increase awareness of energy efficient technologies, practices and solutions and assist establishments to save electricity, reduce operating costs and aim towards environmental best-practice.

The company has a range of rebate programmes speciﬁcally developed to fund B&Bs, guest houses, lodges and hotels who aim to switch from energy intensive technologies and processes to energy efﬁcient solutions.

Eskom and FEDHASA
Eskom is a partner of FEDHASA's annual lmvelo Responsible Tourism Awards Programme. Held annually, the awards identify and honour businesses that make a real, measurable and sustained contribution to responsible tourism in South Africa.

Since inception, the awards programme has helped generate awareness of environmental management issues in the tourism industry, and is in line with the National Minimum Standard for Responsible Tourism and the UN World Tourism Organisation's code of ethics. lmvelo is also supported by the Heritage Environmental Rating Programme.

Eskom and Hotelstuff.co.za
Eskom also partners with Hotelstuff.co.za, an online directory of products and services for the hotel industry, in presenting a series of informational workshops across South Africa.

Hotelstuff.co.za aims to empower establishments with tools, tips and solutions to optimise their energy efficiency and eco-friendliness. Topics covered in the workshops include reducing energy consumption and costs through behavioural change and the deployment of energy efficient technologies; water conservation; alternative energy; waste management 'green' procurement of goods and services; 'green' design and construction; benchmarking practices and operations against industry standards; and obtaining Green Tourism Certiﬁcates.

The partnership with Hotelstuff.co.za has assisted owners of several establishments to conduct energy audits with Eskom and obtain funding through the company's rebate programmes to replace energy intensive technologies and systems with energy efﬁcient and electricity smart solutions.

Eskom and the Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme (STPP)
The Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme (STPP) is Eskom's newest partner in support of tourism in South Africa.

The STPP — a roadshow of workshops — was established to facilitate the implementation of sustainable tourism practices in smaller establishments in the rural areas of South Africa.

Eskom, by partnering these workshops, aims to enable owners of small establishments to power their businesses through optimal energy usage and reduced costs per room by utilising the funding beneﬁts of the company's rebates programmes.

Eskom rebate programmes
The Standard Product is speciﬁcally designed to cater for establishments whose retroﬁt projects achieve energy savings greater than 1kW and greater than 2MWh per annum.

Funding under this programme is capped at R1,875 million per project.
Only technologies that have been approved by Eskom will be considered, including speciﬁc 'off-the-shelf' products such as energy efﬁcient light ﬁttings, solar water heating systems, heat pumps, and energy and water saving shower heads.
Projects may be undertaken by establishments themselves or an Energy Services Company (ESCo) on their behalf.
A new, streamlined, approval process takes less than 2 weeks from project submission.

The Standard Offer pays large establishments, who use electricity for at least 16 hours a day between 6am and 10pm on weekdays, for veriﬁed energy savings.

Achieved savings need to be in the 50 kW to 5 MW range, and will be veriﬁed by an authorised, independent, measurement and veriﬁcation company.
Establishments will be paid for veriﬁed savings at a ﬁxed amount per kWh over a period of three years; this includes an initial payment of 70% of the total project incentive on completion.

Case study

The Manderson Hotel and Conference Centre in Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape conducted a retroﬁt with funding through Eskom's Standard Product programme.

The project achieved a drop from R 41.77 to R39.37 in the average cost per occupied room; when calculated at 50% occupancy, this amounts to an energy saving of R14 892.00 or 6.1%.

Read the Manderson story and get detailed information on Eskom's full range of energy efﬁciency rebate solutions at www.eskom.co.za/idm. Eskom's energy advisers can be contacted on 08600 37566.