"In Ca Mau now, in addition to the exploitation of shrimp and fish, bridge construction, plantation and fires, two "hot" topics are mosquito and electricity. Problem with mosquito is quite clear: on wetlands and rivers, people are living with mosquito. Mosquito fell from sky, mosquito from the water creeping up endlessly. That’s why Ca Mau Children's Central Park lighting system is of top priority," said Mr. Hien - Deputy Head of Business of Ca Mau Electric Company.

Ca Mau electric grid was built and completed immediately after the administrative separation with Bac Lieu (November 1996). This grid spreads from primary forests in U Minh Thuong and U Minh Ha to Dam Doi district, Ngoc Hien. Due to sparsely populated condition, electrical loss only exceeds 9% because of naked wire and frost. The efforts of the electricity industry and Ca Mau’s people in saving electricity are quite impressing. During the serious lack of electricity in the dry season, Ca Mau has contributed to the national grid by operating its gas-power-fertilizer plant with capacity 1,500MW. To help Southern Electricity Corporation overcome difficulties, the implementation of energy saving and reduction in Ca Mau is a matter of great importance for all sectors. The output in 2010 is scheduled to reach 670 million kWh. However, due to planned reduction, the first 5 months in 2010 only reached 258.3 million kWh, equals to 38.55% of plans.

Mr. K'Dong – a Khmer shared "My family and neighbors are quite sympathized! We only use a compact bulb in the living room and a fan to stop mosquitoes. All the four incandescent bulbs are turned off. We have to save electricity to see the World Cup!"

According to Mr. Lai Tan Dat, Director of Ca Mau Electric Company - “To encourage people of Ca Mau to follow K'Dong in saving, we must frequently propagate in various ways”. Therefore, Ca Mau Electric Company has received great response from the authorities.

Ca Mau People’s Committee and authorities have taken a positive part by directly propagating on mass media. Ca Mau Television has integrated energy saving programs in nightly programs. Students in schools have disposed the leaflets and popularized the ideas of using solar energy hot water tank. Ca Mau Women Association and Veterans’ Association also request their member to take part in the campaign. The key to this success is the awareness of the whole provincial population.

By convincing method, coupled with transparent reward and punishment, Ca Mau Electric Company signed hundreds affidavit with primary electricity consumers - mainly seafood processing companies, and ship building companies, etc. These companies are required to rationally plan production time, replace awkward technology of lighting systems in the factory to save 30% of power monthly. Particularly, public lighting systems in Ca Mau city successively replace high pressure bulbs by the Sodium and Compact lighting  over 27 main streets, make "On - Off" intermingled bulbs, switch on 30 minutes later and off 30 minutes earlier every day. Ads must turn off before 21 hours.
 

Ca Mau Electric Company also persuades 550 of its employees in 9 departments to use electricity economically, reasonably in family and office. The trade unions often conduct random check and monitor the movement so it is maintained and spread among 223,442 customers in the entire company.
 

According to the Company’s figures, the accumulative output power saved in the first five months in 2010 was 4,049,885 kWh, reaching over 50% of the plan on saving assigned by the Southern Electricity Corporation. This is an encouraging result of the efforts from two sides: supply and use, implementing policy of the State and the Electricity of Vietnam in currently serious electricity supply situation.

 By Nguyen Nhan