Part 3: Is electricity saving a “cure”?

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	Electricity, aviation companies forecast for a great 2019

Son Ha Group has effectively applied many energy saving measures in the plants. Photo: Nguyen Thanh.

Save up to only 6%!

Concerning the story of electricity use in Vietnam,energy expert Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son analyzed that the national GDP reached US$ 245 billion in 2018 under the statistics of the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Planning and Investment). According to the report of Electricity of Vietnam (EVN),electricity output reached 192 billion kWh.That means1kWh of electricity made only US$ 1.3, while under the world average, 1 kWh of electricity made US$ 3.3. The use of electricityin Vietnam was extremely wasteful,so savings are important.Over the past 10 years, Vietnam has not effectively encouraged energy saving.Therefore, Mr. Son said thatby means of impact on prices, the market would force people to save and use effectively. “In comparison tocountries with average GDP level equal to Vietnam,Vietnam'scurrent electricity priceis lower by 7%.Energy pricesare really not expensivein Vietnam”, Mr. Son said.

Talking to reporters from the Customs News, Mr. Do Huu Hao, Chairman of the Science and Technology Association on using energy economically and efficiently, said that the recent loss of electrical energy (loss in the transmission process, in the distribution process and in internal consumption of EVN)decreased significantly, below 10%.However, electricity saving had not achieved the expected resultsin Vietnam. In fact, according to calculations, Vietnam could save between 30-35%in the immediate future. If the entire population made an effort, the average saving figure would achieve 15%. However,the actual currentsavings figure was only about 6%.

On the reason why electricity saving efficiency in Vietnam is still inferior to potential, Mr. Do Huu Hao explained: “First of all, the consumers' consciousness is not good because electricity price is not very high. Second, the Vietnamese enterprises are mainly small and medium scale, in the production process they use old, they do not have the money to innovate or replace equipmentto save energy. They do not reallysave energy including investment factories. Anotherexample is in construction, it is easy to see that previously designed buildingsdo not consider energy saving. Most Vietnamese buildings have to use electricitythroughout the day, especiallyalmost 24/7 in halls”

Efforts from the electricity industry

EVN stated that In the context of electricity supply difficultymany new power sources of non-EVN investors could not keep up with schedule; the electricity plants using primary sources with low investment costs such as hydropower had not fully exploitedVietnam's electricity consumption, they had not been effective compared to other countries in the world,the implementation of electricity-saving activities would help reduce the pressure on investment of new electricity sources.Electricity savings would help the Vietnamese economy increase its competitiveness by reducing input costs through the application and use of low-electricity devicesand the use of electrical equipment in reasonable and effectivemodes.

In fact, the electricity industry itself, namely EVN in the past time, has also implemented many energy saving measures. Typically, the EVN building was recognized with the title of Hanoi Green Energy Facility in 2017; EVN has also installed solar roofpanel systems at the head office of the Group and its subsidiaries.Particularly, EVN currently has 24 electricity plants (14 plants of electricity generation corporations, and 9 electricity plants directly managed by the Group) on the list of key energy users. All factories have implemented energy audit and energy self-saving solutions. In 2019, EVN carried out the theme of "Improving the operation efficiency of electricity and electricity market", with the aim of achieving target 1 year early for production and business targets in the 5-year plan (2016- 2020). Therefore,the cost savings, maximizing efficiency in the management and operation, including the self-saving energy is a special task of EVN.

The enterprises implement themselves

Regarding electricity saving issue, Mr. Trinh Quoc Vu, Deputy Director of Energy Saving and Sustainable Development Department, (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that energy consumption in productionaccounted for a very high proportion. Particularly in the industrial sector,according to statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, energy consumption in the industrial sectoraccounted for more than 47% of total energy consumption.Technical potential being able to conduct energy savingsin the industrial sector was 20-30%, evenup to 40% in some sectors.If the enterprises could implement energy-saving measures, they would make an important contributionto improving the efficiency of national energy use, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnam's economy.

From anenterprise perspective, it is not difficult to see that many enterprises have alsoactively implemented energy saving solutions and obtainedremarkable results.Mr. Le Vinh Son, Chairman of Son Ha Group, said that they had activelyapplied new technologieswith less energy consumption in production stages;factories took turns to produce electricity to avoid stress during rush hours.Son Ha Group has nearly 10 large-scale factories such as Son Ha Factory in BacNinh. The entire street light system and factory lighting uses led lights. Initially,the plant used very large, old machines, whichused a lot of electricity. "We have replaced with more modern engines which consume less power or use alternative solutions for devices using much electricity. For example, Son Ha Factory in BacNinh, the electricity cost was initially nearly500 millionVND per month,now it is only about300 millionVND per month”, Mr. Son said.

Iron and steel production is an area that uses a lot of electricity. In the context of the risk of electricity shortage, fluctuation in electricity prices and to save electricity and ensure production, HoaPhat Group also applies many effective solutions to save electricity and protect the environment. The Group has applied closed recirculation technology, invested in technology equipment to control the environment andthoroughly handle all kinds of waste and emissions generated for both HoaPhat Iron and Steel Production Complexes in Hai Duong and Quang Ngai. Investment capital for environmental items of HoaPhat Steel accounts for about 20-30% of the total investment of projects.

The effectiveness of the application of closed recirculation technology has been proved very specifically in the Iron and Steel Complex in Hai Duong. The complex uses the most advanced super clean heat recovery coking technology which is the most environmentally friendlyin the world today. This technology eliminates all gas, smoke and toxic chemicals generated from the process of coking coal, recovering only thermal energy to run the generator, helping HoaPhat take nearly 50% of electricity demand on production. For the Complex in Dung Quat (Quang Ngai),it is expected that the self-control electricity outputwill be up 60-70%, bringing significant economic value for HoaPhat Steel.

Mr. Do HuuHao judged that in the end,saving was not the only solution to solving the main problem in the "thirst" of electricity, but onlycontributing to the lack of electricity.If the savings wereup to 10% instead of about 6%,Vietnam would not need to build a power plantevery year,saving a few billion of USD. "A thermal power plantwith a capacity of about 1,200 MW, requires an investment ofUS$ 2.5 billion.If we save the amount of electricity by 1,200 MW a year we do not to have to build athermal power plant.The efficiency is very clear. Vietnam's goal is to be able to save 15% on average.If it can be done, this will be a big number, helping the electricity industry to build 2 thermal power plants per year.From the beginning of the construction plan to completion of a thermal power plant takes an average of 10 years,electricity saving can be done immediately and ismuch more cost effective.In the future, energy saving should not only stop at the level of calling and encouraging butthere should be stronger measures and serious sanctions", Mr. Hao emphasized.

Obviously, electricity power saving cannot be a "cure" for major electricity supply shortages. However, this is a solution that needs to be boosted in the future to quenchthe "thirst" of electricity.