Taking place from May 16th to May 20th in Hanoi, the Conference "Perfecting the overall plan of infrastructure development, human resource development and information dissemination for nuclear power" aimed to complete the overall plan of cooperation with IAEA in developing the infrastructure of nuclear power (IMP) in 2015.

Implementing the first phase of the National program on energy efficiency and conservation, 2006-2010 period, the Ministry of Transport, through measures of propagation, mobilization, popularizing skills to control energy saving vehicles, has made the initial perception of officials and employees about energy-saving awareness in production, management, activities and created habits of energy saving in community.

Cement industry is one of the industries that have been making a significant contribution to economic growth in Vietnam. However, in face of the soaring prices of fuels such as gasoline, oil and electricity, it is meeting with a lot of difficulties. Technological innovation, costs reduction, quality improvement and energy efficiency are what the Viet Nam Cement Corporation is endeavoring for.

Along with the pressure of raising electricity prices, fuel prices, adjusting the VND/USD exchange rate, price of coal sold to cement households has risen by 40% since the beginning of April, which has added a greater burden to cement enterprises. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Thien, Chairman of Vietnam Cement Association, currently, the total energy costs account for 45% - 50% of cement production costs. An 18% increase in gasoline price, a 15.3% increase in electricity price and a 40% increase in coal price have made price of cement increase by 10% to 15%.

In recent times, Gia Lai Power Company has taken many measures in propagating the economic and effective use of electricity, thus saving not only an energy source for the country but also expenses for agencies, businesses and households. Thereby Gia Lai Power Company has made a good use of the electric energy source allocated for production and social-economic development in the province, contributing significantly to the electric energy saving movement.

Sa Giang Import Export JSC (Sa Dec Industrial Zone, Dong Thap) is specialized in producing shrimp chips which have been very familiar to domestic consumers. Since late 2010, as part of the project "Promoting energy conservation in small and medium enterprises", the company has implemented energy audit for the purpose of raising the efficiency of energy use.

With strong propagation, awareness of people and power users has improved considerably; in the last 3 months, Ho Chi Minh City has saved 6.9 million kWh of electricity, 30% higher than same period of 2010. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Ly, Deputy General Director of HCM City Power Corporation, amid difficulties in the current power supply, promoting energy saving is one of the most positive solutions.

Vietnam Electricity Group has assigned Power Corporations to direct power companies to perform power supply in April 2011 under the motto of no power reduction. Besides, EVN has required Power Corporations to continue to closely monitor the daily load situation, report to the Group to assess the situation of power supply in April and report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on power supply plans in May and June 2011.

The second generator of Son La hydropower plant on Tuesday successfully started its test operation, paving the way for its official commissioning with a capacity of 400MW on April 20. With the forthcoming operation of Generator 2, Son La will supply some 20 million kilowatt hours of power for the national grid a day to ease the power shortage for the country in this dry season, said the management board of Son La plant.

Finland is one of the leading countries in the world in the field of clean technologies, especially industrial sewage treating technology and renewable energy development technology. Not only that, the country is also well known for its sustainable development of urban and rural areas as well as its comprehensive solutions to conserve and assess the environment’s condition, control air pollution and protect water sources.

On April 9th, in Hanoi, Vietnam Biogas Association was officially founded. The establishment– technical activity, contributing to the development of livestock husbandry, reducing gas emissions, improving the efficiency of current and future biogas projects, raising income for households and businesses as well as protecting the environment.

Thus, from March 1st, the average price of electricity will increase from 1,077vnd/kWh to 1.242vnd/kWh, equivalent to a 15.28% increase. With this increase, many of EVN’s costs shall continue to be kept from being allocated to the price, the rate of return on state capital of EVN is zero and coal price has not risen in the electricity price structure.

Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) Group yesterday officially started construction on the second turbine of Song Tranh 2 hydropower plant with designed capacity of 95MW. The Song Tranh 2 hydropower plant project has been conducted by EVN Group as the main investor. It's the second hydropower plant to be built on Vu Gia-Thu Bon river system. It is expected that the hydropower plant will produce annual electricity output of 679.6 million KWh to join the national grid.

According to Director of Institute of Atomic Energy, Mr. Vuong Huu Tan, currently, the location of the center is located in the research and proposal. All the work is at the starting point. For the 3 locations of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, in most meetings and conferences, scientists proposed to build the center near Hanoi. According to scientists, this location will satify all conditions, especially to take full advantage of human resources available in Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute.

On December 15th, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) held a ceremony reviewing the energy efficiency program in the 2006-2010 period and the implementation of Directive No. 19/2005/CT-TTg on energy conservation in production and consumption . After 5 years of nationwide deployment, with the coordination between the MOIT and the People's Committees of provinces and cities under the Central Government, the program has obtained encouraging achievements.

To serve the needs of development, production, trade and consumption, in the next 5 years, Hanoi will have to invest about VND 19,500 billion to upgrade and renovate the grid system. That is the content of the scheme “Electricity development planning of Hanoi in 2011 – 2015 period, regarding 2020" which has recently been approved by the City People’s Council.

Some developed countries such as Japan consume only 350-400kWh of electricity to make every tonne of steel billets whereas Vietnam consumes as much as 700kWh of electricity to do that. So if it does not take actions to reduce energy consumption in order to lower the production cost, the Vietnamese steel sector can hardly withstand market competition.

It is nearly one years Phan Xuan Tai family in Tan Lap Village, Cam Thanh Bac Commune, Cam Lam District, Khanh Hoa Province have not been worried about electricity and fuel costs for daily life and raising 120 pigs because they have been using biogas for every daily activities. If there were not the project on biogas sponsored by the Dutch Government, they would have to pay at least VND200,000 for electricity and fuel costs.

On November 19th, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with the assistance of German Government through the Organization of German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the German Energy Agency, put into use the grid connected solar system on the rooftop of the headquarters. The system will save approximately VND 12 million per year for electricity. Using electricity from renewable energy sources is considered the radical solution for the increasing energy demand in Vietnam.

The reason for this situation is that investors do not pay attention to energy conservation methods and their advantages to the socio-economic development. According to the architect Nguyen Tan Van, the chairman of the Vietnam Architect Association, we are not clearly aware of “green architecture” benefits. Therefore, when building, investors do not take advantages of natural conditions and the ancestors’ experiences in the field of construction in tropical region. We need to create a friendlier architecture.

On November 12, the Specialized Science and Technology Council of Soc Trang Province held a meeting to assess the draft of a project aiming to build an improved model of biogas plants to generate power for use by livestock breeding farms in Chau Thanh District. This project is presided over by the Soc Trang Center for Science and Technology Application and headed by engineer Duong Hoang Van, the deputy director of the center’s Technical Department.

In Song Tu Tay Commune, Truong Sa District, Khanh Hoa Province, the Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation worked with the Vietnam Navy High Command to run the project on clean energy and lighting system on the Truong Sa Archipelago and DK1 Drill Rig.

"Ho Chi Minh City currently has partnerships with many localities of the Russian Federation; many cooperative programs and projects between the two sides have been deployed in both Vietnam and Russia. The city always needs the support and cooperation from Russia and Russian localities, especially in the areas in which Russia is one of the leading countries such as science, technology, energy, oil and gas ..." - Mr. Le Minh Tri stressed and expressed the hope that cooperation between the two sides would become increasingly practical and efficient.

At noon of November 18th, at the construction site of Son La hydropower plant, unit 1 of Son La hydropower plant was officially put into no load operation. This is the decisive step in determining the success of unit 1 at the end of this November, one month earlier than the schedule approved by the Prime Minister and 2 years earlier than the progress proposed by the National Assembly.

According to information from the British Embassy, from November 22th to 26th, a trade mission of the Energy Industries Corporation of the UK (EIC) will come to Vietnam to explore investment opportunities in the oil industry. In HCM city, representatives of companies will have meeting with PetroVietnam and companies which were already established and operating in Vietnam market such as Chevron, Conoco Phillips, JVPC and Worley Parsons. The delegation will also visit and work with companies operating in the field of oil and gas in Vung Tau.

Prime Minister affirmed: “Vietnam highly appreciates potential and technologies of South Korean businesses and calls upon South Korean businesses to continue expanding investment in Vietnam, especially in the fields of economic - social infrastructure development, new energy and material production, high technology product manufacturing, support industry, human resource and health development, and agriculture, forestry and fishery development.”