Small businesses save money through energy conservation

HCM City (VNA) - Hundreds of small and medium businesses in Vietnam have
reduced their energy costs by about 50 percent after implementing energy saving
solutions from the Ministry of Science and Technology's energy conservation project.


The five-year project, which began in 2006, is financed by the United Nations
Development Programme and the Global Environment Fund with 29 million USD.

Vietnamese small and medium sized enterprises last year saved 30,800 of oil TOE
(tonne of energy) and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 120,000 tonnes.

Nguyen Ba Vinh, manager of the Promoting Energy Conservation in Small and Medium
Sized Enterprises (PECSME) Project, said more than 50 percent of enterprises
producing bricks, ceramic, pottery, paper, textiles and garments used backward
technologies that wasted a huge amount of energy and negatively impacted the
environment.

SMEs in the five industries are particularly supported by the project. Vinh said
the enterprises would get financial support for energy auditing, technology
transfer and loan guarantees for 75 percent of the investment made for energy
conservation.

According to experts, the project will help SMEs in Vietnam cut 10 to 15
percent of production expenses or hundreds of billions of VND every year through
updated production technologies.

Until 2010, the project will have 500 SMEs reduce their average energy cost per
unit of production by 10-15 percent, saving around 136,000 tonnes of oil and
cutting CO2 emission by 962,000 tonnes.

According to the project management board, so far 370 out of the 500 SMEs have
been supported by the project.

Vinh said last year the project carried out 149 sub-projects in total to propagate
and help enterprises in 20 provinces and cities update their production
technologies, one less than targeted. In 2006 and 2007, a total of 221 projects
were carried out and another 150 had been targeted for 2009, he added.

By the end of last year, 23 enterprises had been given loan guarantees worth
630,000 USD to renovate their production technology, against the target of 30.

All businesses benefiting from the project have been able to save between 15 to 50
percent of their energy costs for each finished product.

Vinh cited enterprises in the pottery village of Bat Trang as an example.
With financial support programmes, many local businesses have switched from
traditional furnaces to gas-powered ones to save energy and become more
environmentally friendly.

In 2007, 20 energy efficient furnaces were built and 3,000 tonnes of oil saved,
with 14,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions cut, Vinh said.

Dr Pham Huu Giuc, an official of the Ministry of Science and Technology who is
director of the project, told a meeting in Quang Ninh province last week that this
year, the project would be strengthened to raise awareness among businesses about
energy conservation and environment protection.

Giuc said that at least another 150 SMEs would enroll in the project this year and
apply energy saving methods.

The Ho Chi Minh City Energy Conservation Centre ( ECC-HCM City ) said the lack
of official legal regulations on energy use was a hurdle to carrying out energy
conservation programmes.

Huynh Kim Tuoc, head of the centre, said the Ministry of Science and Technology
had proposed a draft regulation on energy usage, urging the application of
advanced technology for saving energy in production and transportation. The
regulation was expected to be issued this year.

It would be a basis for preserving the nation's power resources and raising
awareness among the public about energy conservation, Tuoc said, adding that a
series of energy related policies were already being applied.

The campaign begun last year to have energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs used by
households and in public lighting systems, and the affixing of energy-saver stamps
on electronic products was an example, he added.-Enditem