HCM City power savings yield results

Thứ tư, 6/4/2011 | 08:32 GMT+7

HCM City has saved 69 million kWh of electricity in the first quarter of the year under a campaign calling on city residents and enterprises to save electricity, says Nguyen Van Ly, deputy general director of the HCM City Power Corporation.

Speaking at a meeting reviewing the campaign to promote thrift in the use of electricity, water and fuel last Friday, Ly said that the savings would make it possible for the city to avoid power outages in the coming months. The corporation has carried out several measures to save electricity, including offering cash rewards for households who cut their power consumption by at least 10 per cent and calling on enterprises to rotate their production schedule to reduce power consumption during peak hours. It has also asked enterprises that consume more than 50,000kWh per month to adjust their operation schedules by reducing production in dry months and increasing production in rainy months when power supply is not as scarce. More than 226,000 household reduced their power consumption by more than 10 per cent compared to before the campaign , the corporation reported. At the meeting presided over by the HCM City People's Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan, the Sai Gon Water Corporation (Sawaco) reported that it was implementing its plan to preventing water leakage and reduce water use. Sawaco has targeted bringing down the current water leakage rate of nearly 40 per cent to 25 per cent in 2025. The Department of Transport told the meeting that it had made a plan to call on city residents, especially State cadres, civil servants and employees, to use public buses instead of individual vehicles for travel. The city now has 4.5 million motorbikes and 500,000 automobiles and every day 60 per cent of them ply the streets. If each of these vehicles could save about 0.5-1 litre of petrol a day, nearly VND450billion (US$21.4 million) would be saved a month, department director Tran Quang Phuong said. Meanwhile, the HCM City Taxi Association and the HCM City Goods Transport Association reported they implemented several measures to save fuel, including carrying out regular maintenance of their vehicles to reduce fuel consumption. Representatives of the HCM City Economy University, the HCM City National University and the city Youth Union said they launched campaigns calling on students to use public buses or bicycles to save fuel and protect the environment. Quan asked relevant departments and agencies to make and distribute leaflets on measures to save energy and step up efforts to have residents in every household use public buses by April 15. He also requested public passenger transportation firms not to take undue advantage of petrol price hikes by raising ticket prices unreasonably. Source: Vietnam News