The Regional Director for Energy highlighted in Lisbon the growth potential of the Azorean industry associated with rational energy use due to "significant savings" in the electricity bill, ensuring "the financial availability for the sector's competitiveness."
 
"Fostering energy optimisation in the industrial sector boosts economy and employment in the Region," besides the "clear advantages arising from the promotion of environmental sustainability. This is essential in a Region distinguished by its nature as well as by its products," said Andreia Carreiro.
 
As the Regional Director stressed, "the industry is truly relevant when it comes to the regional energy transition, as seen at a European level, contributing to the allocation of consumption for strategic periods in accordance with the network requirements. This will increase the capacity to integrate electricity generated from renewable and endogenous sources into the regional power generation system."
 
Andreia Carreiro spoke on the sidelines of the conference on "Energy Efficiency: the road to a more competitive industry," an initiative held to disseminate the results of the implementation of the Energy Intensive Consumption Management System (SGCIE).
 
"SGCIE is one of the measures envisaged in PNAEE - National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, which aims to certify and promote energy efficiency in industries, providing knowledge on the energy performance of industrial facilities and the reduction of associated costs," said the government official.
 
For the Regional Director, participating in such initiatives is "fundamental" as far as we can "bring to the Region the best examples in terms of implementation of strategies to optimise energy use by industrial units."
 
"We have been encouraging the Azorean industry to join the SGCIE by carrying out careful survey and analysis on industrial energy consumption, through the Regional Directorate for Energy, or by calculating the financial return that investments in energy efficient systems and equipment will bring," stressed the Regional Director.
 
Under the Region's integration into the European RESOR project, Andreia Carreiro mentioned that the Regional Government "is analysing forms of financing these units in timely manner" that should be appropriate to the Azorean reality, along with existing incentive programmes covering the industrial sector, such as Competir+; the latter provides increased support when energy efficiency is targeted in the project. In turn, the Proenergia programme subsidises investments in the exploitation of renewable and endogenous energy resources for microproduction of electricity or heat energy.