The project named "Promoting Energy Conservation in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises", also known as PECSME, have helped local businesses to improve the energy efficient practices of their operation.

Workers work on a production line at a food processing plant. PECSME helps local SMEs to improve their energy efficient practices

Vu Dinh Hau, deputy head of the science - technology department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, 25 consultancies specializing in technology transferring were trained on technology, finance and business.

More than 1,500 managers and technicians from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) also were trained on the benefits of applying technologies in business, how to use energy-saving devices and effectiveness of business operation from technology application, Hau said.

The loan security fund of the project has secured loans of 50 projects worth VND32 billion (US$1.6 million).

More than 521 projects, which were funded by the PECSME, helped save up to 180,000 tons of oil and reduce 740,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emitting from factories.

PECSME also helped form a market for energy-saving devices and technologies, with an attendance of many local small- and medium-sized enterprises and credit organizations.

Among energy-saving technical solutions funded by PECSME is the technology enabling users to replace traditional brick kilns that use coals and woods with Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln.

Another technology is the liquid petroleum gas pottery kilns, helping ceramic makers to replace traditional kilns using coal, which is polluted and wastes a lot of energy.

The PECSME project comprises an integrated set of activities designed to address in a holistic fashion the barriers to widespread utilization of energy efficient management practices, operations and technologies in five priority industrial sectors, including brick, ceramic, textile, food processing and paper-pulp.

The Energy Conservation Center of Ho Chi Minh City, known as ECC-HCMC, opted for three out of five sectors due to the city’s particular economic characteristics, including paper-pulp, food processing and textile.

Surveys show the energy conservation rate of 30 enterprises attending PECSME amounted to 18-30 percent.

ECC-HCMC said the technical solutions for energy conservation funded by PECSME helped save 115 million kilowatt per hour (kWh) in a year, 1.2 million liters of oil per year and reduce 51,200 tons of CO2.

Promoting Energy Conservation in Small and Medium Scale Enterprise’ (PECSME) is a joint effort of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Vietnamese counterparts, aiming at encouraging application of the energy efficient practices among SMEs in Vietnam, and so contributing to the reduction of Green House Gas (GHG) emission by the sector.

The project achieves its objectives by supporting an integrated set of six component programs comprising of policy and institutional support development, communications and awareness, technical capacity development, energy efficiency services provision support, financing support and demonstrations.