After nearly 5 years of enactment of the Law on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy, the country saves about 6% of commercial electricity each year. However, the potential for electricity savings in the country is very huge, because it is calculated that around 25% of commercial electricity each year could be saved. Accordingly, the General Department of Energy plans to support the enterprises (companies) when they join a voluntary pilot program in Economical and Efficient Use of Energy for their business production.

Reduction of costs with energy efficiency 

Mr. Huynh Kim Tuoc, the Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Energy Conservation Center said that the encouragement of Economical and Efficient Use of Energy was not only done when the Law on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy was promulgated but had been previously performed by the Center since 2002.

Accordingly, during the past 15 years, the Center has advised for some 3,000 business clients, of whom 90% of enterprises have applied the measures for energy efficiency. Particularly in the industrial field, from 2002 to the present, Ho Chi Minh City Center has extended its assistance to 588 enterprises in 24 different business sectors, to save an average of 931.9 million kWh of electricity per year, 5.68 million liters oil and 600 thousand tons of emissions of CO2.

In the area of urban infrastructure, 90% of public-private lighting system has been replaced with high-performance lights to save 75.6% of power consumption as compared to that of the old system.

Many businesses have been supported by HCM ECC

Mr. Le Phu Hung, Deputy Director of Science, Technology and Energy Conservation, expects that this program would achieve the goals of energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Also as reflected by Mr. Tuoc, in the action plan to adapt to climate change, the city authority focuses on energy efficiency solutions. Accordingly, the city is developing many pilot projects such as: public lighting, using energy-efficient lamps; Greenhouse gas inventories; Project in renewable biogas energy from organic waste with a capacity of 40-60 tons/day in the Binh Dien wholesale markets of agricultural products; Projects for urban solid waste treatment, combined with re-generation of energy (electricity and heat) with a capacity of 400-600 tons/day.

One of the leading units for energy efficiency to be highlighted is the Electricity Corporation of Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, in recent years, its units have implemented several measures to promote and also to bring about positive results, such as the "typical road for power-saving model" with the aim to mobilize its customers with their home-based business, the units with outdoor billboards, and the parks to turn 0n-off the lights on time; cutting down 50% of the bulb quantity for the billboards, outdoor advertisement signs, to reduce the amount of power consumption with indoor light bulbs, to use air conditioning set at 25oC. As a result, after 3 years of implementation, to date, the power savings achieve 1.2 million kWh, equivalent to over VND 2.1 billion.

Promoting and supporting the enterprises in their voluntary participation in the pilot program

According to Mr. Huynh Kim Tuoc, the energy saving potential is still very huge by now, the energy costs in total production costs of some sectors account for very high proportion. Specifically, in such production sectors like cement, bricks and tiles (45% - 50%), ceramics (35% - 40%), paper and pulp (20% -25%), textiles (20% -25%), food processing (18% -20%). If the electricity price increases by 30%, the cost of production in the sector will increase by 5% - 20%, a large proportion of the total cost of business.

However, to encourage businesses to use energy with more sustainability, on November 25, the Ministry of Industry and Trade organized a seminar about the Economical and Efficient Use of Energy Program for the pilot voluntary agreements in Ho Chi Minh. Mr. Le Phu Hung, Deputy Director of Science, Technology and Energy Conservation, said that the program aims to develop mechanisms of VA (voluntary agreement program) as a policy tool to achieve energy-saving target, and to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.

Along with the main purpose, the program also helps businesses become more proactive in setting up energy-efficiency goals, thereby implementing energy savings, reducing the production costs and doing their business in compliance with the laws and policies of the State. The Program of Voluntary Agreements will be scaled up and replicated in the future.

The participants in the program are industrial manufacturers and the key energy users who wish to develop and implement the plan for Economical and Efficient Use of Energy in long-term and sustainable production. Specifically, the program aims to achieve energy savings of 360.4 thousand TOEs and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of 1,254 million tons of CO2 in its 5th year of implementation.

Trong Tan