The Prime Minister has issued the National Strategy on Climate Change (Decision No. 2139/QD-TTg dated December 5, 2011) and the National Strategy on Green Growth (Decision No. 1658/QD-TTg dated October 1, 2021), alongside various practical action programs, demonstrating a collective determination to combat climate change. Among these, setting the target of green growth is an urgent and essential matter.
Within the context of activities against climate change, the development of green projects can be said to bring substantial benefits to the economy, society, and the environment. The world has also demonstrated that applying green architecture and construction to establish green buildings will bring significant added value and contribute to sustainable development.
Currently in Vietnam, there are three commonly used standards to assess the quality and green level of a residential project: the LOTUS standard of Vietnam, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the US Green Building Council, and the EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) standard by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank. Additionally, there are other standards like GREEAM (UK), Green Star (Australia), GBI (Malaysia), CASBEE (Japan), HQE (France), and Green Mark (Singapore) that are also used to evaluate green construction projects.
One of the key criteria for obtaining green building certification is the use of energy-saving and efficient energy, including the utilization of renewable energy sources (solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, etc.).
Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation has been deploying the installation of a solar energy system on rooftops. (Source: EVNHCMC)
Based on the factors mentioned above, EVNHCMC has recognized the importance of developing green projects. This effort involves the application of solar power systems on the roofs of the offices of various units, encompassing 23 units and the management buildings of 57 power transformer stations with capacities ranging from 110-220kV. The total installed capacity reaches 5,233 kWp since the beginning of 2018. Notably, the IT company’s office installed a solar power system with a total capacity of 135kWp (exceeding 20% of the total designed electricity capacity used). The development of solar power systems has been implemented since the design phase of the 110-220kV power stations, being a mandatory requirement within EVNHCMC. For instance, a 110kV station has an installed capacity of around 20-24kWp, while a 220kV station has a capacity of approximately 40-50kWp.
The electricity generated by these solar systems is utilized for self-consumption at the office of the unit or management houses of the transformer stations. The surplus electricity is then supplied back to the system when not fully consumed, contributing to cost reduction in the operation and production of various units. A clear example is the solar power system managed by the High Voltage Power Corporation of Ho Chi Minh City, which generated 765.7kWh of electricity in the first five months of 2022, with 235.2kWh fed back to the grid, constituting 30.7% of the total output.
