Specializing in manufacturing garments, Song Tien Garment Joint Stock Company (My Tho, Tien Giang) always concentrates on improving their production line, operation competence and product quality. 

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuan – head of the company’s office – revealed that since its foundation in 2003, the board of directors has been very keen to improve technology and production techniques, in which energy conservation is always among the top priorities. Currently, the company has successfully built a quality management system meeting the ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Since 2008, the Board of Directors has decided to collaborate with the Energy Efficiency Research and Development Center – ENERTEAM in conducting energy audits at the company headquarter. Results showed that energy conservation potentials at the company are very promising, all solutions proposed required little investment and were easy to implement in practical application. 
 

Engineer Nguyen Trung Kien, an expert working in Tieng Giang Energy Conservation Center, says that the proposed solutions total up to VND312 million in investment cost and VND362 million in annual profits. So, after less than a year, the company can already recover its investment. Carrying out all propositions, each year the company can save almost 269 kWh, equivalent to approximately 13% of total power consumption and 49 tons of coal. 

Lighting system

Through surveys and investigations, the company’s lighting system every day consumes a relative large amount of 8% of total power consumption. This system was installed when the company was taking its first steps, so most lamps are T10 40W fluorescent lamps with electromagnetic ballasts. 

Replacing the old lamps with new T8 lamps with electric ballasts helped save about 25% of the system’s power consumption. However, the number of lamps replaced is still relatively small when compared with the total number of lamps currently in use in the company. 

The solution of replacing the entire lighting system with a new energy saving system will require an investment of VND264 million and save more than 260 thousand kWh per year, equivalent to more than VND238 million. Therefore after only over a year the company can expect to recover their capital and the lamps’ life is now much longer. 

Improving the operation of compressors 

In the past the production facility of Song Tien Garment Joint Stock Company used one compressor with the average power of 14.5 kW, in full load 75% of operating time. 

In order to raise the energy consumption efficiency in this system, many solutions were proposed such as installing frequency inverters controlling the compressors, adjusting operating pressure and fixing leak points. 

The aforementioned solutions can save 16% power consumption at the compressors’ system, which translates to 8.5 thousands kWh/year. With this measure, the company only needs one frequency inverters at the cost of approximately VND25 million, each year can save VND7.5 million in power cost. 

Steam supply system 

Boilers at Song Tien Garment Company every day use up 12 m3 of firewood. This system provides heat for the ironing workshop. During the survey, experts discovered that the condensation recovery pipes had not been covered with heat insulation, causing condensation leakage.

Boilers at Song Tien Garment Company 

According to the technical experts, the annual amount of heat lost at these pipes can mount up to more than 70000 W, equivalent to an amount of 92 kg of steam lost every hour. Thus, each year the company has to bear an additional cost of VND150 million. 

To fix the large annual heat and steam loss problem the company needs to invest around VND24.3 million, in exchange for saving more than VND130 million per year. This is a low-investment solution that can offer the highest efficiency. 

Talking about the achievements of Song Tien Garment Joint Stock Company, Mr. Thuan proudly notes that thanks to technological innovation in general and the energy conservation awareness in particular, after almost 10 years of production, Song Tien Garment has steadily asserted its position on the domestic garment market. With quality products, reasonable price thanks to lower production costs, it is believed that Song Tien Garment will continue to advance even further.

Tran Quy