Assessment of Energy Efficiency Using an Energy Monitoring System: A Case Study of a Major Energy-Consuming Enterprise in Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam’s economy has been growing rapidly in the last 20 years, leading to significant increases in energy consumption as well as in carbon emissions. Most electricity is consumed by loads of industry and construction due to the country’s socio-economic development strategy. An energy saving strategy cannot be achieved if the industry factories lack energy consumption data. The installation of energy monitoring systems can help to improve energy efficiency by supplying daily, monthly, and yearly energy consumption reports. Moreover, major energy-consuming enterprises in Vietnam must implement solutions for energy-efficient use as prescribed in the Law on Energy Efficient Use. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the impact of an energy monitoring system as an improvement solution for energy efficiency in a typical major energy-consuming enterprise in Vietnam. The study’s results, after six months, show that the total saved electricity after installing the power monitoring system was 191,923 kWh. The company saved approximately 19.584 USD and reduced emission to the environment by 139 tons of CO2. In addition, the return on investment time of power monitoring systems is about 14 months, while the annual energy costs of the factory can be reduced by about 9.62% per year. Therefore, power monitoring systems should be promoted in factories with different scales to control energy wastage in the domestic industry field.