A component of the program to assist firms in energy conservation in the province, An Giang Scientific and Technological Advance Application Center has lately undertaken many positive actions such as: Organizing trainings, auditing, implementing energy saving, etc

All are to raise corporate awareness towards energy management and train them in performing energy auditing, as well as expand energy auditing among firms in the province, contributing to the goal of economical and efficient energy consumption, adapting to the current energy crisis, minimizing effects on the environment, encouraging technological conversion, and raising competitiveness. The large power a factory consumes, the higher its energy conservation potentials.

Cleaner production and energy conservation in sea food processing factory

There have been 10 organizations and individuals taking part in the energy auditing training and skills training. They are: the Cement Factory, Ceramic Brick Factory, Packaging Factory, Tri Ton Tunnel Brick Factory – An Giang Construction Company; Chau Thanh District’s Public Venues Committee; Packaging Factory – An Giang Vegetation Protection Joint Stock Company; Thoai Son District General Hospital; Kim Huong Chafe Factory (Thoai Son); Duc Thanh Garment Company; Cho Moi Rice Polishing Factory. All these firms have high energy costs.

The center has organized training for the staff of energy management, electro mechanic technology, providing basic useful information on different problems related to energy conservation, on the collecting procedure and evaluating findings energy conservation at these institutions to understand the current state of energy consumption on grounds of analyzing and recognizing the level of energy wasted in a factory. Then they can calculate each factory’s actual energy conservation potential and capacity in different sectors and propose solutions to achieve efficient and economical energy consumption.

In addition, the Center also organizes skill trainings of cleaner production for firms: experiments done on waste from X-ray room show that the amount of silver recovered is more than 95%; experiments on fuel-saving device reveal that 10 to 15% fuel can be saved (for Quoc Binh, Hoang Son air filters). Meanwhile, the level of exhaust fumes, machine depreciation and the number of kilometers per hour saved are not different. Besides, a conference introducing chaff gasification technology for 3 districts (Chau Thanh, Tan Chau and Cho Moi) creates economic profits, reduces spending, and makes full use of the available scraps from local agricultural production.

Vice Director of the Center Truong Kien Tho claims that right now, in An Giang, energy conservation is somewhat neglected although it is a very simple solution that requires little investment but proves to be very efficient. According to statistics, commercial power consumption in 2006 was more than 600 million kWh, which has reached 1.5 million kWh in 2010.

It is anticipated the power demand will continue to rise in the near future, while the power shortage will continue to last. According to many experts, energy conservation potential in production and living in the province is very high. However recently, energy conservation was only learned from the media as well as equipment suppliers, hence not very efficient.

Therefore, energy auditing at factories will help firms understand their current state of energy consumption and figure out appropriate solutions. This not only minimizes production cost, raises their competitiveness but also reduces investment cost to energy supplier constructions, reduces waste, and preserve natural resources.

Tran Quy