The Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards joins the global community to mark World Metrology Day on Tuesday 20th May. This year’s theme is “Measurements and the global energy challenge.
In a joint release, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) stated, that, “the world is facing a growing global energy challenge over the coming decades. The crux of the problem is the growing energy demand, particularly from the emerging nations, coupled with the need to limit or reduce greenhouse gases. Add in the desire to have diversity and security of supply and the increasing costs to extract fossil fuels, and we see the trend is for a greater mix of energy sources, including renewables. Diversification, combined with demands for improvements in efficiency of energy generation, transmission and use, mean that technology is constantly being pushed to the limit.”
For our part in Saint Lucia, the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards through interventions in the Metrology Department is impacting the energy challenge with programmes which verify and calibrate instruments used to measure sources of energy such as fuel and electricity through the use of fuel dispensers and electrical energy meters respectively.
These programmes focus primarily on assessing efficiencies such as the value to the consumer to ensure consumers are getting value for money as well as efficiencies related to the testing of energy efficient household appliances
As part of activities to mark World Metrology Day the SLBS will conduct an awareness programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science & Technology, which is at the forefront of the national policy agenda for the development a National Energy Policy and has championed the use of renewable energy technologies and LED lighting in the public and private sectors.
The various programmes of the SLBS, with the assistance of regional partners such as SIM and COPANT, complement the efforts of this Ministry.
