HCM City (VNA) - With many companies in Vietnam remaining energy inefficient, the demand for consultation on energy𒆙 savin🦂g solutions is high.

The HCM City Energy Conservation Centre, for instance, has been offering consultation to more than 200 companies a year. Ninety percent of them achieved satisfactory results, Huynh Kim Tuoc, the director of the centre, revealed at the inaugural ceremony of a programme to encourage energy-intensive companies to adopt energy-saving strategies in HCM City on November 25. At an interaction later with business executives, Le Phu Hung, Deputy Head of the General Department of Energy, said power consumption in Vietnam has increased sharply in recent years and is expected to surge further in the coming years. In 2013 energy consumption was the equivalent of roughly 36 million tonnes of oil, and in 2020 this is expected to go up to 77.6 million tonnes, with industry using 50 percent, he said. Transportation is the second biggest consumer at around 30 percent, he said. The poor technologies used in Vietnam cause high energy consumption, he said. Compared with Japan, for instance, its energy efficiency is a mere sixth, and other countries in the region like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are also more energy efficient, he said. The programme does not have a target for the number of companies participating, amount of energy to be saved or amount of emission to be reduced. Nguyen Phi Hung of the HCM City Energy Conservation Centre cited the success of Colusa-Miliket in adopting solutions to save energy, saying from consuming 0.278 tonnes of oil to produce one tonne of product in 2010, the company brought it down to 0.204 tonnes in 2013. Tan Phu Plastic Company saved 43 percent in 2013 after adopting his centre's solutions, he said. The 2012-16 Clean Production and Energy Efficiency Project by the Ministry of Industry and Trade's General Energy Department is expected to save over 360,000 tonnes oil and reduce emissions by 1.25 million tonnes by its conclusion.-VNA