Choi Ming Shopping Centre shows the way in energy performance

The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) today (April 24) announced that the Housing Authority's Choi Ming Shopping Centre in Tseung Kwan O has been successfully registered under the Hong Kong Energy Efficiency Registration Scheme for Buildings introduced by the department.

The seven-storey shopping centre is the first building in the territory to comply with the Performance-based Building Energy Code. Its successful registration under the scheme by adopting the code marks a milestone in improving energy performance of a building.

EMSD will further enhance the promotion of the code to the building industry through various seminars and liaison meetings. More buildings adopting the code in order to be registered under the Scheme are expected to come on stream.

Enhancing energy efficiency through innovative building design is always one of the Housing Department's key objectives and this is in line with the spirit of the code.

Completed in July 2003, Choi Ming Shopping Centre of Kin Ming Estate has adopted a variety of energy-efficient designs such as using chillers with a high coefficient of performance, computerising chiller control to match changing cooling demand and installing a capacitor bank to improve the power factor of a chiller plant.

Other energy-efficient features include optimised lighting design to provide required lighting levels with a low power requirement, high efficiency motors as well as energy-efficient lifts and escalators.

Through compliance with the code, Choi Ming Shopping Centre has achieved an estimated annual electricity saving of 10% or 140,000 kWh over a shopping centre of the same structure and occupancy that complies with all the four conventional building energy codes. In environmental terms, the annual saving can translate into an annual reduction of 120 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission.

Launched in April 2003, the Performance-based Building Energy Code encourages a holistic approach to building design to cater for total building energy requirements. It emphasises the overall energy performance achieved by innovative energy saving designs, rather than individual adoption of prescribed energy saving measures under the four conventional codes on Lighting, Air Conditioning, Electrical Installations, and Lifts and Escalators.

The Code also provides guidance to building designers while leaving them with ample flexibility to nurture original and creative ideas to achieve energy efficiency and cost savings, thereby contributing to the ultimate goal of protecting the environment.
  
Information on the Code and the Scheme are available on the EMSD website www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/eng/pee/eersb.shtml

Ends/Saturday, April 24, 2004
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