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Article history: This paper outlines the benets of large scale energy efciency programs for new and existing buildings
Received 17 June 2016 in Oman. In particular, an energy productivity analysis for these programs is carried out to encompass
Received in revised form 4 November 2016 their overall impact for Omans economy. Over 75% of the total electricity consumed in Oman is attributed
Accepted 18 November 2016
to buildings with almost 50% is due to household. First, a comprehensive optimization analysis is carried
Available online 23 November 2016
out using whole-building energy simulation to determine the best energy efciency measures suitable
to improve the energy performance of buildings in Oman. The economic and environmental benets of
Keywords:
a wide range of energy efciency technologies are then evaluated. In particular, the impacts of differ-
Building retrots
Energy-efcient measures
ent energy efciency retrot levels of existing buildings are the estimated on the energy productivity
Energy productivity indicators for the building sector of Oman. The results of the analysis indicate that the implementation
Life cycle cost of a government funded large scale energy retrot program for the existing residential building stock is
Optimization highly cost-effective. In particular, it is found that a basic large scale energy efciency retrot program
Oman can provide a reduction of 957 GWh in annual electricity consumption and 214 MW in peak demand as
well as over 660 k-ton per year in carbon emissions.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Fig. 1, the energy productivity for all three sectors in Oman and
thus the effectiveness of the energy resources utilization has been
In order to assess the effectiveness of large scale energy ef- generally decreasing especially since 2005.
ciency programs, energy productivity analysis approach has been The energy productivity metric has the advantage to account for
recently considered (KAPSARC, 2015). In particular, it has been most of the benets attributed to energy efciency programs that
argued that energy productivity can provide better measure of can be quantied. As outlined in Krarti (2015), signicant social,
a countrys economy, energy, and environmental performance economic, and environmental benets can incur from large scale
(KAPSARC, 2014). The energy productivity for any sector of an econ- building energy efciency programs including savings in energy
omy such as the building sector, EPB , can be estimated as the ratio consumption (avoided oil resources use), reduction in electrical
of the value added, VAB , and the total nal energy consumption, peak demand (avoided construction of power plants), decrease
TFCB , attributed to the sector: in carbon emissions (mitigation of greenhouse gases), and cre-
ation of new job opportunities (investments that can be provided
VAB
EPB = (1) by the government initially and then can be supported by the
TFCB
private sector). Moreover, enhancing energy efciency of build-
The energy productivity indicator, as dened by Eq. (1), can be ings can provide additional non-energy benets such improved
utilized to assess how energy resources can be allocated to optimize thermal comfort, healthy indoor environment, and higher work
the sector economic growth (KAPSARC, 2015). Based on combined productivity. Recent reported studies have attempted to quantify
IEA and IMF data, Fig. 1 shows the annual variation of the energy the non-energy benets of building energy efciency programs
productivity of three sectors representing buildings, industry, and (LeBaron, 2011; Hyland, Lyons, & Lyons, 2013; Skumatz, 2014;
transport sector in Oman (IEA, 2016; IMF, 2016). As indicated in WGBC, 2013; Russell, Baatz, Cluett, & Amann, 2015). The added
value of the non-energy benets, if it can be quantied, can fur-
ther enhance the cost effectiveness of building energy efciency
Corresponding author at: University of Colorado at Boulder, CO, USA. programs.
E-mail address: krarti@colorado.edu (M. Krarti).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2016.11.009
2210-6707/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Krarti, K. Dubey / Sustainable Cities and Society 29 (2017) 1222 13
5.0
Energy Producvity (Bn USD/Mtoe)
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Year
Fig. 1. Annual energy productivity for three sectors for the Oman economy.
Fig. 3. (a) 3-D Rendering for energy model and (b) annual energy end-use distribution for a prototypical villa in Muscat, Oman.
2.1. Baseline energy models for prototypical buildings efciency measures on both annual energy consumption and peak
demands is carried using a whole-building simulation analysis and
Using the bottom-up approach to evaluate the impacts and ben- hourly weather data for Muscat (EnergyPlus, 2015).
ets of a wide range of energy efciency measures on the electricity As expected air conditioning to maintain indoor thermal com-
consumption of the building sector, energy models are developed fort is responsible for most of the electricity used in buildings.
and utilized to represent the existing building stock in Oman. For instance, cooling energy end-use represents 75% of the total
Specically, three energy models for residential buildings are estab- annual electricity consumed by the prototypical villa model located
lished representing: a 2-story villa, a 5-story apartment building, in Muscat as noted in Fig. 3 based on the results of a whole-building
and a 1-story traditional house. Moreover, three energy models for simulation analysis. Similar results are found for the other proto-
commercial and governmental buildings are considered: an ofce typical building energy models dened in Table 1.
building, a school, and a retail store. The characteristics of the Using monthly historical data for 2014, the impact of air condi-
baseline energy models for all the building prototypes are dened tioning to cool buildings on the monthly total electricity consumed
using data collected from reported energy audit studies (Alaidroos in Oman can be established by using a regression analysis with
& Krarti, 2015; Ameer & Krarti, 2016; Malik, 2007; Mallela et al., either cooling degree-days or average ambient outdoor temper-
2010; Radhi, Eltrapolsi, & Sharples, 2009). The building specica- atures as shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b), respectively (Krarti, 2012).
tions for various prototypical building energy models are provided The monthly base-load electricity consumption associated to elec-
in Table 1. The energy analysis to assess the impact of several energy tricity needs for operating industrial facilities as well as buildings
M. Krarti, K. Dubey / Sustainable Cities and Society 29 (2017) 1222 15
Table 1
Building construction specications for the prototypical villa.
Building Model Villa Apartment Traditional House Ofce Building School Retail Store
Building
Number of Floors 2 5 1 4 1 1
Total Floor Area 525 m2 3750 m2 200 m2 11600 m2 7000 m2 1400 m2
Wall Construction 20 mm plaster 200 mm light
outside + 200 mm concrete + 20 mm
concrete hollow plaster inside
block + 20 mm plaster
inside
Roof Construction 10 mm built-up 10 mm built-up
roong + 150 mm roong + 200 mm
concrete roof concrete roof
slab + 12.7 mm plaster slab + 12.7 mm plaster
inside inside
Glazing Single-Clear with Single-Clear With
Wood Frames Aluminum Frames
Window-to-Wall Rtio 10% 10% 10% 20% 10% 20%
Inltration 0.84 ACH 0.84 ACH 0.84 ACH 0.60 ACH 0.70 ACH 0.60 ACH
(Perimeter only) (Perimeter only)
Cooling Set Point 24 C 24 C 24 C 23 C 24 C 23 C
(75.2 F) (75.2 F) (75.2 F) (73.4 F) (78.8 F) (73.4 F)
HVAC System Split DX Roof-Top AC Window Central with VAV Roof-Top Roof-Top
HVAC COP/EER COP = 2.5 2.5 2.5 EER = 8.5 EER-4.5 4.5
Occupancy Period 24-h/day 24-h/day 24-h/day 8:0016:00 7:0017:00 8:0023:00
(week-days) (week-days) (daily)
equipment, appliances, and lighting is estimated to be 969 GWh energy building design or retrot for the prototypical villa in Mus-
as illustrated in Fig. 4(a). Meanwhile, building air conditioning cat, Oman. For the analysis outlined in Fig. 7, the PV solar system
energy consumption increases with outdoor air temperature espe- implementation cost is assumed to be $4.5/W (NREL, 2016). The
cially during summer months. In particular, Fig. 4(b) indicates that life-cycle cost optimization analysis results indicate that optimal
monthly electrical energy consumption tripled from 1000 GWh cost-effective designs or retrots can achieve reduction of about
observed in February to 3000 GWh set in July (OPWP, 2014). 61% in total energy consumption and 64% in peak electrical demand
for the prototypical 2-story villa. The optimal set of energy ef-
2.2. Impact of individual EE measures ciency measures as well as the associated savings in annual energy
consumption and peak demand for all the prototypical buildings
In order to determine the impacts of a wide range of design are summarized in Table 2. In particular, savings ranging from 53%
and operating energy efciency measures on annual energy con- to 68% can be achieved for both annual energy consumption and
sumption as well as on electrical peak demand for the prototypical electrical peak demand for all residential and commercial building
building energy models outlined in Table 1, a comprehensive para- energy models.
metric analysis is carried out using weather data of Muscat. As
an illustrative example of the analysis results, Figs. 5 and 6 show 3. Evaluation of benets of energy efciency programs
the percent variations in respectively, annual energy consumption
and electrical peak demand associated with select energy ef- 3.1. Energy efciency programs for new buildings
ciency measures considered for the baseline villa energy model.
As expected, installing energy efcient air conditioning system has 3.1.1. Thermal insulation requirements
the most signicant impact to reduce both annual energy consump- As noted earlier, there are no specic mandatory energy conser-
tion and peak demand. The measure that has the second signicant vation requirements for buildings in Oman. If thermal insulation for
impact is (i) setting the cooling temperature at 26 C (79 F) instead walls and roofs as well as better glazing for windows are required
of 24 C (75 F) for reducing energy consumption and (ii) reducing for new buildings, an estimated reduction of annual energy con-
air inltration to make the building shell air tight for decreasing the sumption of at least 25% reduction in energy consumption and
peak demand. Generally, measures that can reduce annual energy electrical peak demand can be achieved based on the parametric
consumption are also effective in lowering electrical peak demand. analysis results obtained for the buildings listed in Table 1. Using
the same bottom-up analysis carried by Krarti (2015), the economic
2.3. Impact of combined EE measures and environmental benets of the thermal insulation requirements
on new buildings can be estimated as summarized in Table 3.
In order to determine the best energy efciency measures to The carbon emissions for generating electricity are assumed to be
implement for residential and commercial buildings, life cycle 0.690 kg CO2 /kWh and the cost of a power plan is estimated to be
cost based optimization analysis is carried out for each building $1700/kW. It is estimated that new buildings represent 6% of the
energy model considered in Table 1. The optimization analysis existing building stock estimated for 2014.
is performed using the sequential search technique described
by Alaidroos and Krarti (2015). The reported production cost of 3.1.2. Comprehensive energy efciency requirements
$0.08347/kWh for generating electricity in Oman is considered in Using the results of the optimization analysis illustrated in Fig. 7
the optimization analysis (AER, 2014). Implementation costs of var- and Table 2, a more stringent building energy efciency regula-
ious energy efciency measures are obtained from various sources tions can be developed and adopted in Oman for all new buildings.
(Alaidroos & Krarti, 2015; Ameer & Krarti, 2016; Krarti & Ihm, The impact of this stringent code is assumed to be 50% savings in
2016). Fig. 7 represents the Pareto graph obtained from the opti- both energy consumption and peak demand associated with the
mization results indicating the optimal path to achieve net-zero new building stock. These savings are set lower than the potential
16 M. Krarti, K. Dubey / Sustainable Cities and Society 29 (2017) 1222
Fig. 5. Impact of each EEM on energy savings for a villa located Muscat, Oman.
Fig. 6. Impact of each EEM on peak demand for a villa located in Muscat, Oman.
M. Krarti, K. Dubey / Sustainable Cities and Society 29 (2017) 1222 17
Fig. 7. Optimization analysis showing energy savings vs. life cycle cost for a 2-story villa in Muscat, Oman.
Table 2
List of optimal design and operating strategies and potential energy use and peak demand savings for prototypical buildings in Muscat, Oman.
EEM 2-story Villa 5-story Apartment 1-story Traditional 4-story Ofce 1-story School 1-story Retail Store
(525 m2 ) Building House Building (7000 m2 ) (1400 m2 )
(3750 m2 ) (200 m2 ) (7000 m2 )
Table 3
Economic and environmental benets for requiring better insulated building envelope systems for all new buildings in Oman based on 2014 building stock estimates.
Building Type Annual Energy Use Peak Demand Annual CO2 Emissions Annual Energy Cost Peak Demand Savings
Savings Savings Savings Savings ($ Million)
(GWh/yr) (MW) (103 Tons/yr) ($ Million/yr)
Table 4
Economic and environmental benets for implementing a stringent building energy efciency code for all new buildings in Oman based on 2014 building stock estimates.
Building Type Annual Energy Use Peak Demand Annual CO2 Emissions Annual Energy Cost Peak Demand
Savings Savings Savings Savings Savings
(GWh/yr) (MW) (103 Tons/yr) ($ Million/yr) ($ Million)
Table 5
Options for energy efciency measures specic to three retrot levels of Omani residential buildings.
levels that could be achieved for all building prototypes as indi- Table 5 provides specic packages of simple yet proven energy
cated Table 2. The conservative values are considered to account efciency measures that can be considered for the three building
for behavioral variations including some rebound effects (Majcen, energy retrot levels using the results of the simulation analysis
Itard, & Visscher, 2013; Jacobsen & Kotchen, 2013). The benets of a carried out for this study. The potential annual energy use sav-
comprehensive building energy efciency code applied to the new ings for each package is provided in Table 5. Moreover, ranges for
buildings are estimated and are summarized as shown in Table 4 the rebound effects associated with changes in occupant behav-
iors are estimated for each energy efciency package and building
retrot level using results from reported analyses (Borenstein,
3.2. Energy retrots for existing buildings 2015; Jacobsen & Kotchen, 2013; Majcen et al., 2013).
As noted earlier, the economic benets of the building energy
Three levels of energy efciency building retrots are suggested efciency retrot programs are estimated using the actual cost of
for the Sultanate of Oman with different economic and environ- 32.4 Bz/kWh required for generating and distributing electricity
mental benets (ASHRAE, 2011; Hong et al., 2015; Krarti, 2015): (i.e., $0.08347/kWh) rather than the average subsidized price of
15.7 Bz/kWh (i.e., $0.040/KWh) using the reported AER data (AER,
2014). Moreover, the environmental benets are estimated using
Level-1 of energy efciency retrot: involving low-cost energy an average carbon emission factor of 690 g CO2 /kWh for Oman
efciency measures such installation of programmable ther- (Solanki et al., 2013). Table 6 summarizes the annual CO2 emis-
mostats, use of CLF or LED lighting xtures, and weatherization sions savings (associated with reducing the amount of fuel needed
of building shell to reduce air inltration. As detailed in Table 5, to generate electricity), annual energy cost savings (associated with
the estimated average savings from a level-1 retrot program using less fuel to generate electricity), and the peak demand savings
are 8% for all building types based on the simulation analysis car- (associated with avoiding the construction of new power plants)
ried for this study as well as case studies reported for residential, for level-1, level-2, and level-3 building energy efciency retrot
commercial, and governmental buildings. programs in Oman. As clearly shown in Table 6, signicant eco-
Level-2 of energy efciency retrot: including use of energy nomic and environmental benets can be achieved for all the levels
efcient cooling systems as well as temperature and lighting con- of the building energy retrot programs. While requiring higher
trols. Based on the simulation results obtained in this study as implementation costs, Higher benets can be achieved for level-2
noted in Table 5 and conrmed by the reported ndings in the and level-3 retrot programs can achieve larger savings and more
exiting literature, average savings of 23% can be achieved for benets compared to level-1 retrot program. The economic and
level-2 retrots for all building types (Ameer & Krarti, 2016; Hong environmental benets that can be realized for residential build-
et al., 2015). ings are signicantly higher than those obtained for commercial or
Level-3 of energy efciency retrot: requiring the implemen- governmental buildings for all energy retrot levels. Indeed, over
tation of capital-intensive measures including addition of roof 58% of the benets can be achieved by solely retrotting residential
thermal insulation, cooling system replacement, and installation buildings in Oman as indicated in Table 6.
of daylighting control systems. While, deep retrots are typically It is expected that the implementation of the large scale building
costly, they can provide signicant energy use savings exceeding energy efciency retrot programs to be gradual requiring several
50% as noted in the simulation analysis results outlined in Table 5. years due to main reasons: (i) the signicant investments needed
M. Krarti, K. Dubey / Sustainable Cities and Society 29 (2017) 1222 19
Table 6 Table 8
Economic and environmental benets for three levels of building energy efciency Average costs expressed in US$ for energy retrots of buildings in Oman.
retrot programs for Oman based on 2014 building stock estimates.
Building Type Level-1 Level-2 Level-3
Retrot Program Level-1 Level-2 Level-3
Residential Buildings 250 2500 5000
Annual Energy Savings (GWh/year) Commercial Buildings 5000 25,000 50,000
Residential Buildings 957 2751 5980 Governmental Buildings 10,000 50,000 100,000
Commercial Buildings 404 1162 2525
Governmental Buildings 291 836 1817
ing 2015 (AER, 2014). Overall, IMF has estimated that during 2015
Total Existing Building Stock 1652 4748 10322
the total energy subsidies amount to $7.27 billion or 8.9% of the
Peak Demand Savings (MW) Omani GDP (IMF, 2016).
Residential Buildings 214 616 1339
The cost-effectiveness of implementing large scale energy ef-
Commercial Buildings 90 260 565
Governmental Buildings 65 187 407 ciency programs for existing buildings are estimated in this study
from the perspective of the Omani government. Indeed, investing
Total Existing Building Stock 370 1063 2311 in energy efciency measures are generally not cost-effective for
Annual CO2 Savings (kilo-Tons/year) building owners due to highly subsidized energy prices. As dis-
Residential Buildings 660 1898 4126 cussed earlier, the overall economic, environmental, and social
Commercial Buildings 200 574 1247 benets of the energy retrot programs are signicant for Oman
Governmental Buildings 144 413 898
and therefore their cost-effectiveness should be evaluated from the
Total Existing Building Stock 1003 2885 6271 perspective of the government of Oman. First, the costs needed
to fully implement the three building energy efciency retrot
Annual Avoided Fuel Costs ($Million/year)
programs are estimated. Then, the cost-effectiveness analysis of
Residential Buildings 80 230 499
Commercial Buildings 34 97 211 the energy efciency retrot programs is carried out for various
Governmental Buildings 24 70 152 building types. Finally, the job creation potential required for the
implementation of the energy retrot programs is also determined
Total Existing Building Stock 138 396 862
and discussed in this section.
Avoided Power Plants Costs ($Million)
Residential Buildings 364 1047 2276
4.1. Cost-effectiveness analysis
Commercial Buildings 153 442 961
Governmental Buildings 111 318 692
The specic implementation costs for the building energy
Total Existing Building Stock 628 1807 3929 retrots depend on several factors including the building size and
the physical conditions of the building energy systems. Based on
various sources including cost of labor and materials in the GCC
Table 7
Electricity prices for Omani residential, governmental, and commercial buildings. region, the average costs of completing energy retrot for build-
ings are estimated (Ameer & Krarti, 2015; Krarti & Ihm, 2016; Krarti,
Commercial Buildings (Flat rate) 20 BZ/kWh ($0.05194/kWh)
2012, 2015). Table 8 summarizes the implementation costs for all
Residences/Government Buildings
three level of energy retrot programs specic to residential and
03000 kWh 10 Bz/kWh ($0.026/kWh) commercial buildings including costs for performing energy audits
30015000 kWh 15 Bz/kWh ($0.039/kWh)
50017000 kWh 20 Bz/kWh ($0.052/kWh)
as well as for installing any recommended energy efciency mea-
700110,000 kWh 25 Bz/kWh ($0.065/kWh) sures.
10,000+ kWh 30 Bz/kWh ($0.078/kWh) The cost benet analysis for the building energy efciency
retrot programs to upgrade the existing buildings in Oman are
estimated using the latest available building stock statistics (NCSI,
for renovating the entire existing building stock as estimated in 2015). The results, summarized in Table 9, indicate that the three
the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis section, and (ii) the lack of qualied levels of energy retrot programs are highly cost-effective when
energy efciency contractors in Oman as discussed in the Job Cre- deployed for the residential buildings. In fact, the implementa-
ation section. However, any of the three energy retrot programs tion costs for level-1 retrot program would be recovered from the
can result in signicant economic and environmental benets for avoided costs of building new power plants to generate electricity
Oman even when only a small fraction of the existing stock is tar- needed to meet the energy requirements of households if no energy
geted. efciency actions are taken. The payback periods for all three
retrot levels are found to be long for commercial and governmen-
4. Program implementation considerations tal buildings most likely due to the high estimated implementation
costs of energy efciency measures for these buildings. It is there-
Energy prices are highly subsidized in Oman. Table 7 shows the fore, highly recommended that a retrot program be developed
current electricity prices for residential, governmental, and com- rst by the Omani government to improve the energy efciency of
mercial customers in Oman. While the commercial customers have the existing residential building stock as summarized in Table 9.
a at rate of $0.05194/kWh, the residential and governmental cus-
tomers are charged based on the level of their consumption ranging 4.2. Estimation of job creation and market potential of EE
from a low of $0.026/kWh to $0.078/kWh. The Omani Authority for industry
Electricity Regulation has estimated that the average price charged
to all its customers is 15.7 Baiza/kWh ($0.0408/kWh) during 2014 The other economic impact of the building energy efciency
(AER, 2014). Since the minimal economic cost for generating elec- retrot programs is the potential to create new jobs in Oman. As
tricity is reported to be 25.3 Baiza/kWh (i.e., $0.0743/kWh) for 2014, outlined by Pollin, Heintz and Garrett-Peltier (2009), Hyland et al.
the Omani government provides subsidies of about 9.7 Baiza/kWh (2013) and Krarti (2015), the direct effects for retrotting buildings
($0.0252/kWh) or 38% the economic cost of generating electricity. include jobs needed to implement the energy efciency measures
The subsidies level is estimated to be even higher reaching 46% dur- while the indirect effects are associated with jobs needed to pro-
20 M. Krarti, K. Dubey / Sustainable Cities and Society 29 (2017) 1222
Table 9 Table 10
Cost-effectiveness analysis of three energy efciency retrot programs in Oman. Number of Job Years that can be created from a building energy retrot program in
Oman.
Retrot Program Level-1 Level-2 Level-3
Building Type Level-1 Level-2 Level-3
Implementation Program Costs ($Million)
Residential Buildings 174 1739 3477 Residential 2071 20694 41376
Commercial Buildings 581 2906 5881 Commercial 6914 34581 69984
Governmental Buildings 278 1391 2781 Governmental 3308 16553 33094
Total Existing Building Stock 2.9 10.7 9.4 In order to determine the cumulative impacts of the benets
that can be incurred from building energy efciency programs, the
monetary values of these benets are estimated and accounted for
duce and supply energy efciency equipment and materials. Most as part of the energy productivity analysis outlined in the Introduc-
of the jobs created for building retrots are within the construction tion section. Specically, three main benets are considered for the
and manufacturing industries with a wide range of pay level and three levels of energy retrot programs proposed for the existing
technical specialization including electricians, HVAC technicians, building stock in Oman including:
insulation installers, energy auditors, building inspectors, and con-
struction managers. Energy consumption reduction resulting in two impacts on the
Using the job creation model considered in the analysis per- energy productivity of the Omani building sector as dened by Eq.
formed by Krarti (2015), $1.0 million investment in building energy (1): (i) the reduction in nal energy consumption, TFCB , and (ii)
retrot can create 11.9 job-years with 7.0 direct and 4.9 indirect the increase in value added, VAB , associated with the avoided cost
3.5
3
Energy Producvity ($ Billions/TOE)
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
Reducon in Energy Avoided Oil Avoided Oil Avoided Oil All Benets Included
Consumpon with No Consumpon Consumpon and Consumpon, Carbon with Government
change in Value Added Carbon Emissions Emissions, and Power Funding Used
Plants
Fig. 8. Impact on Omani building sector energy productivity for three retrot programs of the entire building stock.
M. Krarti, K. Dubey / Sustainable Cities and Society 29 (2017) 1222 21
4
Level-1 Level-2 Level-3
3.5
Energy Producvity (USD Bllion/MTOE)
3
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 2028 2030 2032 2034 2036
Year
Fig. 9. Annual progression for Omani building sector energy productivity for three retrot programs of the entire building stock during a 20-year implementation period.
of oil required to generate electricity. To estimate the value added increases incrementally but slightly the energy productivity of the
of avoided oil consumption, oil price of $45/barre, oil production Omani building sector by up to 4% when a comprehensive set of
cost in Oman of $5.3/barrel (Knoema, 2016), and an average ef- requirements is considered and up to 2% when thermal insulation
ciency of 36% for electricity power plants (IEA, 2012) are utilized. is only required for walls and roofs.
Electrical peak demand reduction lowering the number of power
plants required to deploy to meet future energy needs of the
building sector. An average cost of $1700/kW is considered to 6. Summary and conclusions
estimate the increase in added value, VAB , due to the avoided
power plant capacities (ECRA, 2015). The analysis outlined in this paper indicates that improving
Carbon emission reduction due to decreasing the need to com- the energy efciency of the building stock in Oman has several
bust oil or gas to generate electricity in power plants. A value of benets including reduction in electricity consumption, electrical
$10/ton is used to estimate the increase in added value, VAB , due peak demands, carbon emissions, as well as the creation of a siz-
to the lower carbon emissions (EPA, 2016; Russell et al., 2015). able number of employment opportunities. In particular, it is found
that a level 1 energy retrot of residential buildings is highly cost-
Fig. 8 shows the effects of the three levels of energy retrot pro- effective even when the Omani government has to nance the
grams, considered in this study, on the energy productivity for the implementation costs for all existing households. Indeed, level 1
Omani building sector. The impacts of the benets outlined above energy retrot program when applied to the existing Omani res-
on the building sector energy productivity are evaluated gradually idential building stock could achieve savings of 957 GWh/year in
for the three retrot programs. When accounting for only the sav- electricity consumption, 214 MW, in electrical peak demand, and
ings in energy consumption, without accounting for the potential 660 k-tons/year in carbon emissions. Moreover, the analysis sum-
monetary added value of avoided oil use, the energy productiv- marized in this paper indicates that a large scale energy retrot
ity can be increased by up to 75% when level-3 retrot program is program for the residential buildings can create signicant number
applied to the building stock. However, when considering all the of jobs in Oman with up to 41,376 full time job-years. Over 143,633
benets and their added values assuming the private sector can job-years are estimated if all the building stock is retrotted. When
provide the necessary investments needed for the programs imple- all the benets are considered, the analysis has indicated that level-
mentation, the energy productivity can be doubled when the entire 3 retrot program has the highest impact and can double the energy
building stock is retrotted. When the government nances the productivity of the Omani building sector allowing to release signif-
entire retrot programs, the energy productivity can be increased icant funds from avoided oil revenues and power plant investments
by up to 160% for the entire building stock. Fig. 9 illustrates the that can be utilized for other government programs.
progression of the building sector energy productivity when all
the benets are considered for the three retrot levels when the
implementation period is set for 20 years (so that each year 5% of References
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