Diamond Plaza, recognized as one of the most beautiful buildings in Vietnam, has twice been rewarded as "the ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) Energy Efficient Building". The building always obeys strictest regulations in design, construction and operation to guarantee aesthetic effects and energy efficiency to meet demands of a "Green Building".

At present, high buildings consume large amounts of energy. According to statistics, the trade and services sectors' energy consumption accounts for 10 percent of the country's total amount of energy consumption. It is estimated that the figure will increase by 3.6 times in the next ten years. Therefore, it is necessary for the sectors to apply energy conservation methods.

Located on Le Duan Street at the center of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, an ideal location for business, foreign affairs and entertainment activities, the Diamond Plaza is host to offices, apartments, shopping and entertainment centers. As one of the biggest buildings in Vietnam, the building managers have paid a special attention to the application of energy conservation to reduce greenhouse emission. When talking about experiences on energy conservation, the chief engineer Luong Minh Duc said that in order to ensure energy conservation, the most important thing is suitable design. Suitable construction structure and architecture and modern technical systems help the building save 10-40 percent of energy consumption. Electric and cooling systems and other devices in the building are under automatic control. The building is equipped with measurement devices and sensors to supervise the operation of technical systems, especially electricity. Therefore, the building can control energy consumption levels and an energy audit can be done easily. 

Since the building came into use, the managers have implemented energy conservation methods through analysis and statistics of electric additional charges. Statistics of energy consumption including electricity, oil and water consumption are saved each day, month and year. Therefore, computers in the automatic control system can provide accurate statistics of additional charges at any time.

In order to efficiently save energy, the Diamond Plaza divides and assigns responsibilities to different teams. To technical staff, the automatic control system helps the staff to adjust the operation time of equipment within the building to avoid energy wastage. The automatic control system also helps them to control additional charges of cooling system at different times and weather. In addition, inverters are installed for air conditioners, blowers in the basement and other equipment to conserve energy. After investing VND1.5 billion to install inverters, the building has cut electricity consumption by 30 percent (equal to more than 4.5 million of kWh), reducing nearly 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and saving more than VND6.5 billion annually.

The building has a huge lighting system. Therefore, there is a need for the building to reduce energy use and guarantee lighting and aesthetic effects in the system. All lamps within the building are put under an automatic remote controller by computers in the central control room. The automatic remote controller can switch on and off lamps and adjust lighting times depending seasons and weather conditions. In addition, the automatic remote controls helps reduce labor. The building uses energy conservations lamps and LED  lamps. The building is designed in order to utilize natural light or wind to save energy. Duc said that in the coming time, they will install inverters for all equipment which uses three-phase asynchronous motors. In addition, solar power water heaters and wind power electric generators will be used and the old cooling system will be replaced with an advanced system which will help save energy.

"Energy will not be effectively conserved if we just depend on machines." Duc said. Aware of the situation, apart from technical solutions, communication activities to improve worker awareness have been focused on. The building managers also pay attention to workers' initiatives to conserve energy. If the solutions are feasible and efficient, they will be applied.

With intelligent solutions to save energy and improved people's awareness, the Diamond Plaza Building has made significant achievements in energy conservation and become one of the greenest buildings in the region.

By Phuong Lan (VEN)