Vietnam: Energy efficiency standards for new buildings have been signed into law

New standards can curb soaring demand for electricity in a highly cost-effective way

Vietnam’s Ministry of Construction has approved the final version of a set of mandatory energy efficiency standards for new buildings. The new standards can significantly reduce Vietnam’s demand for electricity in the years to come. This is important, because demand is set to triple in the decade from 2010 to 2020. Not only will this require new and expensive generation and distribution capacity and cause a huge increase in CO₂-emissions from new, coal-fired plants. There is also a non- negligible risk that capacity cannot keep up with the increase in demand. This would cause costly and disruptive black-outs.

Therefore, measures which can curb the dramatic increase in electricity demand are highly appropriate. The new efficiency standards are Vietnam’s most important step in that direction. The new standards will make Vietnamese buildings no less practical or pleasant to use – quite the contrary – but they will significantly reduce the need for electricity and new generation capacity. And they will do so at a much lower cost than it would take to build the same capacity.

The LCTU has supported the Vietnamese Ministry of Construction in the process of defining the new standards – and we will now support the implementation process quite extensively. Danish support will include training and training materials for practitioners (architects, engineers and construction companies) as well as design advice for a number of demonstration buildings.

Vietnamese Mandatory Energy Efficiency Standards for New Buildings

Jesper Ditlefsen
AC-medarbejder
Center for Erhverv og Energieffektivitet
Tlf.: 33 95 58 15
jdi@ens.dk