Most of the 600 companies that the city's Energy Conservation Centre (ECC) hasaudited over the last five years were not using energy efficiently, and onlythree had installed smart energy systems.

Energy audits could savecompanies thousands of dollars in electricity bills, according to Nguyen ThiNgoc Tho, manager of the centre's Department of Technical Consultancy.

The ECC has audited energy systems for local companies and manufacturersat their request and recommended necessary changes.

"The three companieswith smart energy systems are foreign-invested," she said.

Energy-savingequipment and staff awareness of energy conservation were the keys to cuttingback on energy consumption, she added.

Hoc Mon District's Thien TriCompany, a commercial paper producer, whose energy accounts for 16 percent ofits products' cost, said the rate had dropped by 2 percent since it had investedin energy-efficient machinery, according to ECC's recommendations.

Thesavings reached 140 million VND (7,000 USD) a month, or more than 85,000 USD foran entire year, said Nguyen Van Thu, general director of the company.

Thu said all of his departments and production phases were reviewed forenergy use before he made an investment decision.

The staff had alsobeen trained in energy conservation. Quotas on electricity consumption anddiscipline had been imposed to ensure energy efficiency in the company, he said.

A 60 percent savings on company's electricity bills in the last threeyears allowed the company to improve wages and bonuses, said the generaldirector.

At District 1's Continental Hotel, an energy management boardmade up of managers of various departments drew up energy efficiency policies,said Dao Hoang Lien, deputy general director of the company.

Implementation is supervised and evaluated by software builtspecifically for managing energy use.

"Our overhead has dropped byalmost 20 percent year-on-year since we applied strict energy policies," Liensaid./.