Saving energy for sustainable business development

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Many businesses have started to apply energy optimization solutions. Photo: Internet

The leading mission for sustainable development

As a producer and exporter of agricultural products, a representative of Hoang Ngoc Investment and Trade Co., Ltd. said the company is using four cold storage systems with large capacity, consuming a lot of electricity, so they have to pay monthly bills. VND70-80 million for electricity. Therefore, the Company has invested more than VND10 billion to install the solar power system, so that the monthly electricity bill is only VND10-15 million, greatly reducing production operating costs. production of enterprises, avoiding affecting product prices in the context of escalating prices.

Investment options like Hoang Ngoc Investment and Trading Co., Ltd are certainly not unique.

According to businesses, effective energy management not only helps to optimize energy use, bringing economic value, but also ensures the goal of environmental sustainability and carbon emission reduction.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the industry in Vietnam currently accounts for more than 47% of the total energy consumption of the country, with the potential to save energy up to 30-35%. Therefore, it is very important for manufacturing enterprises to implement energy-saving solutions in the process of socio-economic development, a top important task to help businesses develop sustainably.

According to Dong Mai Lam, General Director of Schneider Electric Vietnam and Cambodia, international corporations must comply with many regulations on energy management and sustainable development, so energy saving and management will help businesses integrate internationally.

Besides, Lam said that effective energy management will help businesses save 10-20% on energy investment costs.

Many businesses have come up with solutions to implement the above orientations. For example, a representative of Da Nang Rubber Joint Stock Company said that the company has been looking for optimal solutions for energy saving. Since the beginning of 2022, the Company has implemented many synchronous solutions in the field of energy saving, using solutions to convert equipment using high-efficiency energy, applying renewable energy such as solar energy, biogas, and biomass energy throughout the company to make an important contribution to the assurance and stability of energy.

Not only investing more in technology but also in management, businesses also apply digital technology to manage and save energy effectively. According to Nguyen Manh Tung, Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of Song Nam Group, the company is deploying software for energy monitoring and analysis, providing customers with a solution to integrate a set of tools to analyze optimization.

Need an incentive mechanism

Although many businesses have focused on implementation, the reality shows that the general awareness of energy management in Vietnamese enterprises is not high, partly because there is no timely mechanism to encourage and promote motivation for energy management, enterprises applying science and technology to optimize energy saving; on the other hand, because the management agencies have not had the monitoring, analysis and measurement of effectiveness.

Talking about this issue, at a recent seminar on energy management, Trinh Quoc Vu, Deputy Chief of the Office of the Steering Committee for Energy Efficiency, Deputy Director of the Department of Energy Saving, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the legal framework on energy saving in Vietnam is basically complete, but the actual implementation has not been as expected.

The reason is that businesses are still not fully aware of the benefits that energy saving brings, leading to the situation that businesses do not want to spend the costs to build an energy management model.

Therefore, businesses and experts all believe that creating an effective process in energy management requires not only technology but also awareness of businesses. Nguyen Manh Tung said that businesses are starting to apply solutions for energy optimization, as well as energy management systems and devices to optimize energy consumption, but need to improve the efficiency of policies, procedures as well as communication on energy saving.

Therefore, Trinh Quoc Vu said, the Government is studying a mechanism to encourage businesses to manage energy efficiently. In addition, ministries, agencies and sectors are also developing pilot programs and mechanisms to support enterprises to invest in energy saving, including financial mechanisms.