The Mekong Plastic Joint Stock Company (Trung An Industrial Zone, My Tho city, Tien Giang province) specializes in producing diverse ranges of packaging serving domestic and export markets with an annual revenue of around VND100 billion. Surveys show that the company can save VND245 million each year if it applies energy efficient measures.

A producer of plastic packaging from compound membranes such as PP, PE and HDPE the company mainly uses electricity in production that accounts for 97 percent of its energy cost; the water charges account for the remaining three percent of the energy cost. The water is for daily life and for operating cooling towers with a monthly capacity of around 1,800cu.m. Water charges amounted to VND102 million in 2008. Not using power generators, the company does not have to use fuel. Therefore, its energy efficient solutions concentrate around ways to save power.

Energy consumption facts

Energy audits completed by the Ho Chi Minh City Energy Conservation Center at the company showed that the company consumed 3.1 million KWh in production in 2007 and around 4 million KWh in 2008. The surveys also revealed that the company consumed most energy in the second and the third quarter every year while the period after the Solar New Year and the Lunar New Year was the time the company used the lowest energy amount.

With energy saving measures, the company can save up to VND245 million a year.

Besides, energy consumption in 2008 rose about 21 percent against that in 2007 due to increased power consumption. Meanwhile the production output in 2008 only rose seven percent compared to in 2007.

Bulky machinery lines such as spinning machines, textile and printing machines are the company’s major power consumers. Besides, the lighting system also absorbs huge power volume as the system mostly uses T10/40W bulbs with 10W-plus steel ballasts. Statistics show that the company’s lighting system absorbs around KWh daily.

Though accounting for merely three percent of the energy cost, the water volume the company uses each year costs it a significant amount. The company uses around 1,800cu.m of water every month, with a current water charge of VND4,500/cu.m, the company has to pay VND8.5 million for water bill each month.

The solutions

There is a fact the company production space is designed in a way to make effective use of the sunlight. However, the lamps all turn on in production, even in areas having sufficient sunlight. Turning off the light in these areas is necessary to save the power cost. In doing so, it is suggested to install special reflection relays that signal when the light is higher than the fixed level in these areas. When seeing this relay signal, workers will turn off the lamps. The measure can save the company nearly VND4 million a year.

Besides, the workplace where workers check up the product quality still use incandescent bulbs, and the T10/40W bulbs are popular in diverse production areas. If the T10/40W bulbs are replaced by the energy efficient T8/30 lamps, it can save the company VND3.2 million a year.

The company then attempts to replace incandescent bulbs by quality energy efficient lamps at the same light level to save the power cost. The plastic packaging and membrane spinning system currently causes huge thermal waste. A test was made in which the company four 5.5KW plastic mixers were insulated. Before the test, the machine surface had a temperature of around 70 degrees Celsius, after the test the insulated machine surface temperature was reduced to 40 degrees Celsius. The method helps the company save around VND40 million a year, and avoid discharging nearly 20,000 kg of carbon dioxide to the environment.

Insulating axe screws costs the company around VND37 million every year, however it saves the company up to VND80 million each year, and the company can recover its investment after seven months. Besides, the company also thinks of insulating the multi-layer nylon membrane spinning frames that helps it save VND70 million a year maximally.

A 5.5Kw plastic mixer covered with insulated material can reduce 20,000kg of CO2.

In the sewing machine area, power saving equipment helps the company save 60-70 percent of the power amount. However, with big initial investments it takes the company about 10 years to get its investment recovered. Specialists suggest the company management invest in new electronic sewing machines when the depreciation period of existing sewing machines is over.

Besides, supporting measures such as changing the time the water is pumped into cooling towers, installing inverters to printing machines, or improving textile machines motors also help the company save the energy cost markedly.

If these all measures are taken, the company can save around 265,000KWh, equal to VND245 million each year that was eight percent of total power cost in 2008. With initial investments of around VND400 million, the company can recover the capital after 1.6 years, in the meantime avoid discharging around 115,000 kg of carbon dioxide to the environment each year.

By Hung Phong