In addition to efforts to develop the power grid, the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has actively implemented energy-saving solutions, the Vietnam Economic News reported.

According to EVN’s energy-saving report, the group has strongly deployed solutions and created a breakthrough in improving energy efficiency in all sectors such as industrial production, construction, transport and services.

Legal documents, management network and the deployment of the energy-saving programme have basically been formed. Energy database system has been piloted in some sectors such as cement, steel, garment and textile and seafood processing.

EVN has also paid special attention to promoting communication campaigns, contributing to raising community awareness on energy-saving and protecting the environment. Member units have deployed many solutions such as organising training courses, competitions, exhibitions and the Earth Hour campaign and bringing energy-saving contents into the national education system.

According to EVN assessment, energy-saving activities and projects carried out in recent years have always attached to the government’s goals and requirements, contributing to bringing practical effects to the society.

When the law on energy efficiency took effect on January 1, 2011, energy-saving activities have created a breakthrough. The country saved more than 5 billion kWh of electricity in the 2006-2010 period and 1.3 billion kWh and 1.67 billion kWh in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

In particular, in 2013, the country saved 2.8 billion kWh of electricity, equal to 141 percent of the yearly plan with a total amount of about 3.7 trillion VND.

However, the energy-saving programme has also faced some problems in terms of financial resources and low community awareness. A number of energy efficiency projects have remained difficult to get access to capital source. In particular, the problem of low energy price was a large barrier when implementing energy efficiency measures. Therefore, the most important solution is to change the perception of energy efficiency ,especially in sectors that use lots of energy with poor performance.

According to the plan, in 2014, EVN will drastically implement measures such as assigning power loss target to member units, promoting campaigns on energy-saving and raising community awareness.

In addition, the group will continuously implement projects and programmes to exploit energy-saving potential such as energy-saving households, energy-saving routes, advertising the use of solar energy water heaters, using safe lighting sources and playing video clips on energy-saving in the public areas.

Moreover, using compact fluorescent bulbs, installing energy-saving devices, such as air conditioners and refrigerators mounted with inverter and switching off lights when not needed are mentioned, contributing to changing consumer habits on energy-using.-VNA