|
(VEN) - With a fairly high economic growth, Da Nang city is also a big energy consumer. Therefore, a lot of projects and programs have been underway in the city thus far to help it conserve energy in an efficient manner.
Statistics show that small and medium scale businesses account for over 90 percent of total businesses in the city. Each year, Da Nang consumes around 800 million kWh, of which 700 million kWh is used in production and business. Besides, the amount of FO and DO used in production rose constantly year by year.
Aware of the importance for energy conservation since 2007 Da Nang had embarked on the Promoting Energy Conservation in Small and Medium Size Enterprises (PECSME) Project. The project manager, Nguyen Ba Vinh, said from 2007-2010 Da Nang attempted to carry out at least 35 energy efficiency projects to save over 1,500 tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE) and avoid discharging to the environment around 14.600 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Towards this goal a series of activities were underway in the city. Particularly, energy audits took place in nine businesses which were big energy consumers. The results reflected that these nine businesses had the potential to save VND2.1 billion/year. Under the project, 41 businesses active in diverse fields in Da Nang city such as paper, pottery, textile and garment production and food/seafood processing had a chance to join workshops and training courses on energy efficiency. Besides, measures were taken to conserve energy in public, school and hotel lighting. The results were quite upbeat.
The Royal Hotel is one of businesses that have actively taken energy efficiency measures. Formerly, the hotel consumed a huge amount of energy due to careless use of electric equipment such as decorative lamps and air conditioners. The hotel had to pay VND40-50 million each month for electricity bills. After getting involved in the PECSME Project the hotel took diverse measures to save energy such as replacing 40W lamps by 8W lamps and installing solar water heaters, etc. Now, though the rooms are doubled in number and the hotel has built five additional apartments, a dancing room and a massage center with around 30 rooms it has to pay around VND50 million for electricity bill each month only, equal to the amount it paid before embracing energy efficiency approach.
One of the enterprises that have posted encouraging results after applying simple measures is the Thanh Dat Garment Enterprise. Like in many other textile and garment businesses, the lighting system consumes a huge amount of energy. Formerly the enterprise mainly used incandescent and fluorescent lamps for its lighting system, so that it must pay a huge sum for electricity bill each month. Therefore, after replacing all fluorescent lamps with halogen lamps and lowering the distance to lamps the enterprise uses less lamps with much better luminance.
Commenting on energy efficiency efforts in Da Nang, Vinh said "The PECSME Project is nearing completion in Da Nang city. During implementation, the project has received active support from enterprises. We are eager for the final results that are expected to go far beyond initial targets when the project will be completed by the year end."./.
By Bao Ngoc
|