PM urges power saving practices

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged ministries, sectors and grass-root authorities to provide an adequate power supply for business production and increased residential demand.

The leader has asked State agencies and offices to draw up plans to save power, issue regulations on power use, and use energy-efficient electricity appliances and lights in all agencies.

According to the Government, the amount of power savings produced by office personnel will be listed as part of staff annual appraisals.

Ministers, heads of ministry-level agencies and Government agencies as well as heads of provinces and cities’ People’s Committees and State corporations will be responsible to strictly inspect and penalise those who disobey energy-saving regulations.

They will also be responsible for publicising electricity-consumption information.

The Prime Minister’s instruction also mandates a 50 per cent drop in power capacity for outdoor advertising panels used in the evening.

This year, power demand during the dry season is expected to soar 18.3 per cent.

This year’s dry season has led to a lack of water at most reservoirs used for power generation.

The snail-paced construction of many power projects has also contributed to power shortages.

The electricity output is expected to reach 93.7 billion kWh, an increase of 14 per cent against 2010.

Electricity of Viet Nam plans to save at least 1 per cent of electricity, equal to 1 billion kWh this year.

During the previous five years, the country saved more than 4 million kWh power.

The saved energy is estimated to be the same capacity of two and a half years of operation of the Tri An Hydro-power Plant.

In his instruction, the Prime Minister requests the EVN to upgrade power grids in rural areas, reduce power losses in the areas to 15 per cent by the end of the year and 10 per cent by 2015.

Last year, at a conference on electricity power, Japan International Cooperation Agency officials forecasted that Viet Nam’s power demand would increase by 3.5 fold by 2020.

Investigations show that approximately 95 per cent of buildings have no power-savings criteria as part of their designs. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam electricity, Vietnam energy, Vietnam power shortage