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* Atleast Project Title is Required.
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Project No. |
EWG 17 2015A
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Project Title |
Renewable Energy Safety in APEC
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Project Status |
Completed Project
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Publication (if any) |
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Fund Account |
APEC Support Fund
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Sub-fund |
ASF: Energy Efficiency
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Project Year |
2015
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Project Session |
Session 1
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APEC Funding |
120,000
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Co-funding Amount |
0
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Total Project Value |
120,000
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Sponsoring Forum |
Energy Working Group (EWG)
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Topics |
Energy
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Committee |
SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)
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Other Fora Involved |
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Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved |
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Proposing Economy(ies) |
Thailand
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Co-Sponsoring Economies |
Philippines; United States
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Expected Start Date |
01/10/2015
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Expected Completion Date |
30/09/2016
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Project Proponent Name 1 |
Dr Twarath Sutabutr
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Job Title 1 |
Deputy Permanent Secretary
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Organization 1 |
Ministry of Energy
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Postal Address 1 |
Energy Complex Building B, Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
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Telephone 1 |
66-2 1406130
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Fax 1 |
Not Applicable
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Email 1 |
twarath@energy.mail.go.th
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Project Proponent Name 2 |
Not Applicable
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Job Title 2 |
Not Applicable
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Organization 2 |
Not Applicable
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Postal Address 2 |
Not Applicable
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Telephone 2 |
Not Applicable
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Fax 2 |
Not Applicable
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Email 2 |
Not Applicable
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Declaration |
Dr Twarath Sutabutr
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Project Summary |
Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) become popular in every APEC economies, especially in South East Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia) where sharing similar climate and culture. Thailand experienced a hard way in promoting RET without raising safety awareness. There were many accidents occurred, which led to property damages, casualties, and death. In 2011, the Ministry of Energy of Thailand has started with a safety raising program called Energy Safety by providing demonstration kits and communication skills to community-based energy volunteers. These volunteers then use the kits and skills to promote safety in Thailand successfully. Thus, This project aims to replicate the idea for raising safety awareness in Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia by using the same approach. Partners in each economy will be identified. Selection of appropriate volunteers will be made. Then, demonstration kits and skills will be delivered to the selected volunteers. |
Relevance |
Relevance - Benefits to Region: Renewable Energy Technology (RET) becomes popular to general population throughout APEC region. In communities, RET, such as Biogas and Solar PV are more favorable over other technologies. However, it seems that safety aspect of these RETs have not been fully recognized by people who utilize RET, which leads to property damages, casualties, and deaths. Over the past 10 years, there were reports on accidents related to using RET in Thailand. The accidents led to over 1 million USD property damages. Moreover, more than 50 people had lost their lives. This is an example of not enough RET safety-concern promotion. Since, RET will be continuously promoted in APEC region, accidents related should be avoid at all cost.
This project aims to raise safety awareness in using RET in selected APEC economies (Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia). The method that is being implemented successfully in Thailand is using community-based renewable energy volunteers as safety ambassadors. The community-based renewable energy volunteers were selected from active and high-respected persons in communities. They were trained with safety protocols to be able use and demonstrate safety equipment correctly. In long term, the volunteers will go back to their communities and be spokespersons on RET safety. APEC economies such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, are selected to participate in this project since they share common culture. So that this project could benefit in their RET promotion with minimum number of accidents. Long term planning for each economy will be established in order to receive supports from their governments.
Relevance – Rank: This project falls under “Rank 2, Sustainable Growth that include energy efficiency, energy security and energy resiliency including the development of low carbon technology and alternative energy sources. The levels of RET promotion and people acceptance in each economy are different. This may affect volunteers’ procedure. In addition, it must be also aware that promoting RET safety must not hinder promoting RET itself. |
Objectives |
The following objectives have been set for the project:
1) To establish long term planning for RET safety in chosen APEC economies;
2) To create network of community-based renewable energy volunteers for each economy; and
3) To build capacity on RE safety in chosen APEC economies. |
Alignment |
Alignment - APEC: Align to vision statement – this project will achieve APEC’s Vision Statement by ensuring the use of Renewable technology is sustainable operation with safety both of operator and equipment. So the achievement of this project can distribute to APEC member to use in their economies.
Alignment – Forum: Every economy has a plan to increase energy production and utilization from Renewable Energy such as biogas, biomass and solar. Sustainability implementation of these RE projects is the vital key success for every economy. One of the most important factor is safety both during building and operation. |
TILF/ASF Justification |
This project aims to provide safety concerns of RET to selected personals of chosen economies. The trained personals will be tasked to participate in safety concern raising activities in their economy. The project will create a network of participants via online workspace so that they can share ideas, activities, and suggestions to each other. Using online workspace, the knowledge can be shared further to other APEC developing economies. Lesson learnt from this project could be used to improve the methodology. Future implementation of similar project in other developing economies will be more effective. Thus, this project will be of value to all APEC developing member economies. |
Beneficiaries and Outputs |
Outputs:
1) Energy Safety volunteers in participating economies
2) Energy Safety knowledge pack for general public, service persons and owners
3) Energy Safety training curriculum
Outcomes:
1) General public, service persons and owners of RE projects gain better understanding of safety issues in operating RET
2) Long term plan for promoting energy safety
3) Lower potential for RET accidents
Beneficiaries: The direct participants of this project compose of two groups; government officers and private individuals. There should be 1 government officer who represent Ministry of Energy in participating economies (Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia) and 2 private individuals, who will be energy volunteers.
The government officer joining this project should be those who responsible for promoting RET. The person should be have scientific background knowledge or working in public relation. The role in this project is to assimilate the idea of distributing safety concern through community-based energy volunteers for further implementation.
The energy volunteers should be those who currently own and operate RET technologies (Biogas, Biomass, and Solar PV). They will learn about safety issues in three RET technologies and how community-based energy volunteers in Thailand are working together as a network. The energy volunteers should compose of both 1 males and 1 females. They should be selected by the government officer representative from their economy.
Experiences and knowledge transfer sessions between Thai participants and participants from selected economy will highlight the processes, technological background, obstacles, and solutions of the community-based energy volunteer concept. Towards the end of the project, both groups of beneficiaries will then be work together in adopting the project concept. Then they are encouraged to create a framework for promoting this concept to suit the environment in their economy. |
Dissemination |
1) Energy safety knowledge pack will be developed. It contains safety equipment and printed safety factsheets. Safety equipment, such as mask, globe, oxygen pack, rope and rack etc., will be used for training. Then, it can be further used by participants for promote safety issues in their home economy. Safety factsheets for each RET technology has been developed in Thai language already. In this stage, the design and format of the factsheets will remain the same. However, the content will be translated into corresponding languages by the participants during training.
2) In this project, participants from each economy will develop dissemination plan for future implementation in their economy based on the specific RET situation in their economy. 3) Project information will be published on a website to serve as information portal on RET safety. Participants who are from government officer will be responsible for uploading contents (project related activities). The language used will be English. The web portal will be used as a communication tool among participating APEC economies. |
Gender |
In this project, selection for energy volunteers is a vital process. It will be emphasized, during selection process, to the government officers representing each participating economy to select 1 male and 1 female energy volunteers to join this project. Thus, it is expected that at least 50% of participants will be female. |
Work Plan |
Overall project duration is 12 months. The key activities and deliverables are as follows;
1) Meeting with stakeholders of each economy and selection of community-based energy volunteers (Month = 1-3)
A training session will be organized in Chiang Mai, Thailand. There are 2 groups of participants, which are government offices, and energy volunteers. The participants from Thailand will be trainers, sharing their experiences of RET safety in Thailand. It must be ensured that selected Thai participants must be experienced on RET safety promotion. For participants form other economies, they will be asked to prepare cases of RET accidents for sharing during discussion as well. Issues such as causes of accidents, prevention, persons with high risk of accident, and communication strategies will be discussed. Hand-on activities will be provided for better understanding. In the meeting, project details will be provided to the participants. In addition, guideline for community-based energy volunteer will be provided so that after going back to their home economies, the participants will be able to select participants to this project. Government officer participating in the session will assist on translation to overcome language barrier.
2) Formulation of training course content and preparing training materials (Month = 3-5)
Materials and experiences obtained from Thailand will be used as foundation for developing training course content and materials for other economies. In addition, information from stakeholders meeting will be used to fulfill the uniqueness regarding RET development of each economy. The training preparation includes both technical and communication aspects.
3) Training and experience transfer sessions (Month = 6-9)
In this step, 2 experienced community-based energy volunteers and 2 officials from Thailand will be selected to travel to the participated economies and meet with energy volunteers from that economy. Experience sharing session will be organized in the capital city of each economy. The participants previously engaged in stakeholder meeting will attract additional 20 potential energy volunteers for each economy to participate in the sessions. During the session, communication techniques will be shared. Demonstration and site visit will be added as part of experience transfer. It is expected that the participants from each economy will be able to use the knowledge transferred during the session for further dissemination in their own economy.
4) Long term planning for further dissemination of the project for each economy (Month = 10-11)
One participant who is government officer from each economy previously engaged will meet again in Thailand in order to discuss about experience gained from this project. Appropriateness and usefulness of RET safety materials will be discussed. Long term planning for RET safety for each economy will be developed based on the information obtain from the meeting.
5) Preparation of the project report (Month = 12)
At the end of the project, final report will be prepared. The content of the report includes detail project activities, list of participants, outputs and outcomes. |
Risks |
Language is the most crucial part of this project. The project successfulness rely on the use of proper language and communication skills. Illustrations are also be used in the information pack. Skilled translators for each language will be chosen. The translators of each language should be able to fully understand the technical part of RET. Moreover, the translators should be able to communicate with participants using native dialogue.
Information on cases of RET accidents in participating economies may not be available in public. However, the risk of accident exists. By identify the potential risk of each RET and using examples from Thailand, this could greatly help participants to understand the risks of accident. Motivation of volunteers is also a risk to the successful of this project. Since this project is based on voluntary, sufficient measures must be taken. Experiences from Thailand shown that selection of retired person, who have fulfilled their basic need already, is encouraged. In addition, providing special social status to the selected volunteers is one of the key success. |
Monitoring and Evaluation |
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Month |
Data collected |
Indicators |
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1-3 |
Number of participants from each participating economy |
No. of meeting = 1 (Stakeholder meeting)
No. of Economies = 4
No. of Participants = 20 |
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3-5 |
Statistic data of RET accidents in participating economy |
Knowledge training pack and curriculum |
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6-9 |
Number of participant
Pre-test and post-test |
Knowledge transfer between Thai community-based energy volunteers and local community-based energy volunteers = 4 times
No. of Participants = 80 |
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10-11 |
Number of participants from each participating economy |
RET safety long term plan of each participating economy |
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12 |
- |
Report submission | |
Linkages |
The Renewable Energy Safety project is the key for sustainable development and implementation of RETs. There are concrete evident from previous RET projects, that were implemented in Thailand, where accidents took place and caused loss of lives and property damages. For example, there was one accident occurred in a pig farm where Biogas system is installed. Three sub-contracted workers opened Biogas valve in a 2-meter-deep well. This incident caused their lives due to unaware that hydrogen sulfide in Biogas is very dangerous. The lesson learnt from this accident is that there are many people who are working with RET but they do not aware about safety issues. Thus, the Ministry of Energy of Thailand started RET safety program to promote safety awareness. This program is targeted at none-technical people, labors, communities, who are or work in close proximate of RET installations.
The key success of this program is to train Community-based Energy volunteers who will work as long term speak-persons for this topic. Moreover, the trained energy volunteers will none-selectively provide RET safety knowledge to any RET projects in their areas. For example, there are many RE projects, funded by the Thai government and overseas funding agencies, are being implemented in Thailand. The trained energy volunteers from this project have been working in conjunction with those projects to emphasize the importance of safety issues. After continuously implementing this program for more than 3 years, the number of accidents in RET drop significantly.
One of the key factors of this project is networking of community-based energy volunteers. The network can enable them to learn from each other. Exchanging information on accident cases, teaching techniques, and answering difficult question can enhance them to be more respectful in their communities.
The approach of Community-based Energy Volunteer is simple. Thus, it can be expanded in other APEC and non-APEC stakeholders. |
Sustainability |
Beneficiaries will be supported to carry forward the results and lessons from the project by building long term plan for RET safety concerns in their economy. By using the example of the Thai community-based energy volunteers, participants who are government officers from each economy will be encouraged to build a plan for supporting their community-based energy volunteers. The plan should, at least, compose of steps to be taken, implementation period, funding supports, target to be achieved. It is expected that the plan should be purposed as one of the RE promotion policies.
Understanding in RET safety is important. Annual training for each RET should be provided so that the energy volunteers knowledge is up-to-date. Generally the knowledge is not measured. However, individual practice sessions during training will ensure that the energy volunteers understand the subject correctly.
The participants who becomes energy volunteers will be encourage to continuously use the purchased tools in RET safety promotion. Also, they should be able to train additional volunteers to carry out the task to cover larger targets. It was experienced that giving special social status by government is the strongest motivation for the volunteers to continuously carry out their assigned tasks.
Activities such those require financial supports from their government. In order to follow up the progress in each economy, questionnaires will be prepared and collect data from participants (6 months after project completion). Results will be sent to the Secretariat Program Director.
Networking of the community-based energy volunteers is important for future actions. Internet web portal will be used as a tool for communication and data sharing among them. In some cases where internet access is limited, the use of SMS could be encouraged for national communication level. In these manners, safety tool and package supplied can be shared. It is suggested that the project lessons learnt should also be make available to APEC websites and presented at an EGNRET meeting. The progress on the outcomes and impacts (Question 6) can be measured through the understanding in RET safety of participating community-based energy volunteers. The impact of this project is long term and can not be measured in the purposed project period. However, one of the indicators that can be used is the cooperation among community-based energy volunteers that participating in this project. |
Project Overseers |
Project Overseer Information and Declaration:
Name : Dr. Twarath Sutabutr
Title : Deputy Permanent Secretary
Organization : Ministry of Energy, Thailand
Postal address : 555/2 Energy Complex Building B, 22-25th Floor, Vibhavadi-Rangsit Rd., Kwaneng Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900 Thailand
Main Point of Contact:
Name : Mrs. Munlika Sompranon
Title : Chief of International Cooperation Section
Organization : Planning Division, Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, Ministry of Energy, Thailand
Postal address : 17 Rama One Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand |
Cost Efficiency |
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Drawdown Timetable |
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Direct Labour |
General duties:
1. Administrative work
2. Assisting the project leader and project team in disbursing their tasks
3. Arrange all and engage relevant communications with various parties 4. Manage the project timetabling |
Waivers |
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Are there any supporting document attached? |
No
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Attachments
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