Vietnam loses US$1m from energy waste
26-JUL-2008 Intellasia | Vietnamnet
Jul 26, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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The Ministry of Science and Technology and Dutch EDP organisation last December announced a terrible number: Vietnam loses around US$1 million a day from the waste of energy.
How much energy does Vietnam waste? That question is a challenge for local energy management agencies. However, experts have released shocking data for some specific areas.
In October 2007, at a workshop on energy savings, Le Van Chung Anh of the HCM City Department of Science and Technology said waste of energy in daily life and production was quite high. Many industries consume a lot of energy while they could save it. He said to create US$1,000, Vietnam had to use around 500kg oil while Japan only needs 100kg.
Some other experts said to make the same product, Vietnam has to use twice as much energy as Malaysia and Thailand.
At a workshop on energy development in September 2007, the Ministry of Science and Technology said that to have energy growth of 14%, Vietnam would have to invest around US$8 billion.
Meanwhile, with simple energy saving methods, Vietnam can immediately reduce 10-20% of its need for energy, equivalent to US$8 billion.
In December 2007, the Ministry of Science and Technology and EDP, an organisation from the Netherlands, released a terrifying figure at a conference to raise awareness of energy saving. According to them, Vietnam loses around US$1 million a day due to energy waste.
According to Dr Pham Xuan Mai of the HCM City Polytechnic University, traffic jams in this city causes energy waste worth nearly 3.5 trillion dong (US$218.75 million) a year.
The above figures have forced energy management agencies like the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) to admit that Vietnam is wasting too much energy. This waste not only affects the country's development but causes environmental pollution.
Saving energy must be put on the books
From 2003 to 2005, the government issued three instructions on petrol saving and one on electricity saving. However, these instructions were not obeyed strictly.
According to the government's audited report for 2005, administrative spending exceeded estimations by 42%, and a large part of the spending was for petrol and electricity.
In 2006, Vietnam's electricity loss was 15.8%. According to the HCM City Department of Power, 80% of administrative agencies in the city wasted power and none of them saved 10% of power spending as the government instructed.
At a press conference on July 21, 2008 in Hanoi, minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang said recent inspections showed that many state agencies were not aware of energy saving.
Vietnam's consumption of energy is rising very fast while the energy saving policy is not being implemented at the same pace.
Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh said the government will continue to ask state agencies to practice energy saving methods. However, experts of the Ministry of Science and Technology say Vietnam needs to enact an energy-saving law as soon as possible so the saving of energy can be enforced.
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