The capital is set to experience power shortages of 15-20 per cent during the course of next year due to slow progress in the instalment of a power transmission line system and transformer stations.

The IAEA Director General emphasized that ensuring nuclear safety and security is now the agency’s top priority, especially after the recent Fukushima nuclear incidents in Japan.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the business community should be encouraged to participate in the development of green growth. Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha emphasized this at the closing of the ASEM forum on green growth in Hanoi on October 4.

A solution to which the power sector attaches special attention to overcome power shortages is to promote energy saving programs. In particular, power saving solutions in industrial factories, which are considered to have the largest saving potential, are of great importance.

As forecasted by EVN, under the basic plan, load demand in the last six months of the year will reach 56.949 billion kWh, 8.23% higher than the same period of 2010. Water flow of hydropower reservoirs in the last four months of the year shall reach the frequency of 65%; hydropower reservoirs shall reach the normal water levels at the end of the year.

As an enterprise with 100% foreign owned capital, the production line of Binh An Co., Ltd is well equipped. This enterprise is specialized in producing fresh water from raw water pumped from Dong Nai River. Power consumption of the company is mainly for water pumping, lighting and air conditioning.

With such effort, the company's products are always accepted by the market and it is gaining more and more customers. The company's products have been exported to many countries around the world including many difficult markets like the UK, France, Netherlands and Canada.

Also, during the operation of energy using equipment in the building, the building management board always upholds the management, operation and maintenance of equipment to ensure that power consuming systems always operate in the best conditions.

With an output of about 100 million tons of cement in 2015, the total power consumption of this sector is predicted to be about 9 billion kWh of electricity, while the average saving rate is just approximately 30%.

With the development orientation of biofuels, Petro Vietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil) focuses on developing distribution systems, investment and upgrading infrastructure so as to build 400 stores throughout the country by the end of this year to provide about 50.000m3 of E5 Ethanol bio petrol to the market.

Lighting is one of the important industries, which consumes 25% of the total national commercial electricity, plays an important role in socio-economic development of the country, contributes to political and social security of urban areas.

Accordingly, to end of 2011, the country will have four ethanol fuel manufacturing facilities in operation with the design capacity of 300,000 tons per year, enough to produce about 6 million tons of E5 petrol to serve domestic consumption.

Located in the province of Hai Duong, Hong Duong Co., Ltd. is an enterprise specialized in producing and processing agricultural products, foodstuffs and types of salt with the production capacity of 12,000 tons of salt per year. Although the equipment is relatively uniform and modern, each year, the company still consumes a lot of energy: 278,400 kWh of electricity per year and 367.2 tons of coal per year. How to reduce consumption of these resources is the main concern of the company's leaders.

Thai Nguyen is known not only as the revolutionary base, the cradle of the metallurgic industry, but also the center of education - training of Viet Bac, and ranks 3rd in the number of universities, colleges, secondary vocational schools located in the locality. Therefore, the demand for electricity is very high, the current maximum power consumption is 250MW, and the required power output is 4.5 million kWh per day, of which electricity for industrial production accounts for nearly 80%. So in recent years, Thai Nguyen has been actively implementing energy saving in all sectors from industrial production, offices to public lighting...

The Nha Trang Textile and Garment Joint Stock Company is a production unit that had high electric energy consumption - about 58 million KWh per year. To reduce product costs and increase the competitiveness in the market during the period 2006 – 2010, the company constantly implemented power-saving solutions in production.

At the Electricity Customer Conference in 2011, one of the typical reports on the most successful energy saving measures in 2010 was delivered by Quy Nhon Green Parks and Urban Lighting Ltd., whose measures not only beautified the city with high efficient lighting but also saved great amounts of electric energy. Correspondent of Vietnam Electricity Central Power Corporation Website (EVNCPC) had an interview with Mr. Do Dinh Phuong - Director of Quy Nhon Green Parks and Urban Lighting Ltd. on this issue.

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.