Development of Energy Efficiency Action Plan at Provincial Level of Vietnam

Energy efficiency (EE), which is one of the pillars of national strategy to improve economic competitiveness and sustainability of the economy. This is an area that complements and cross-cuts such national strategic goals as easing the burden of energy costs on the economy, ensuring energy supply security, alleviating risks arising from external dependency, the transition to low-carbon economy and protection of the environment. The energy consumption by Vietnam increases faster than in developed countries on account of population growth, rising prosperity, strengthening service sector and industrialization. The Vietnam National Energy Efficiency Program (VNEEP) was approved in 13 th March 2019 in Decision No. 280/2019/QD-TTg by the Prime Minister to set up the energy efficiency goals as well as activities, and outcomes for period 2019 – 2025 and 2026 – 2030 (Prime Minister of Vietnam, 2019). In accordance with the VNEEP program, all city/provincial governments have been developing their own action plans of EE to achieve the goals of 5%-7% of energy consumption. Through case study, the main purpose of this study is to develop the action plan of EE implementation (EEAP) at provincial level of Vietnam.


INTRODUCTION
Energy efficiency (EE) and saving is a key element to achieve decarbonization at a global level to attaining the 1.5°C objective and reducing energy and climate mitigation costs (Labandeira et al., 2020). EE provides an important contribution to security of energy supply and in increasing business competitiveness and citizen welfare (Bertoldi and Mosconi, 2020). EE is the core dimensions of the Energy Union, next to energy security, solidarity and trust; the internal energy market; decarbonization of the economy; and research, innovation and competitiveness. Co-benefits of energy efficiency like the reduction of emissions, enhanced competitiveness, health and economic benefits can be significantly higher than the cost of energy measures (Zhang et al., 2016).
Besides, EE is not only keep an important issue to the economic issues (Chen et al., 2020) but challenges the very structure of our global society and covers issues like economics, politics, business management and each individual's lifestyle choices (Solnørdal and Foss, 2018). At the national perspective, using EE brings significant environmental, economic and social benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, limiting climate change, limiting risks due to uncertainties can occur due to fluctuations in fuel prices and exhaustion those enable sustainable development of a nation (Huan and Hong, 2021). Indeed, existing evidence suggests that strong EE policies can provide up to 50% of the emission reduction required to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement (Agency, 2018), thus many countries have introduced policies to reduce energy demand and improve EE to achieve sustainable development (Bertoldi and Mosconi, 2020).
While most of the advanced countries are establishing frame work to boost the use of renewable green energy which protect the environment (Tariq et al., 2018), energy use in developing countries has risen more than fourfold over the past three decades and is expected to continue increasing rapidly in the future (U.S. Congress, 1991). Recent years, although a large amount of energy is being disbursed for economic development in developing countries (Tariq et al., 2018) many countries are trying to impose different strategies and policies and to overcome the problems of environment due to energy consumption (Toman and Jemelkova, 2003).
Vietnam government has strengthened the policy framework on EE improvement of various end-users in the economy. A number of legal documents covering the planning and implementation of EE policy and the program has been approved and enforced by the government. In this regard, the Vietnam government has also strengthened the institution for EE improvement by creating a special agency named Energy Efficiency and Currently, Vietnam has been one of the active and fastest growing economics in the region. Economic growth is still a high priority for development, however governmental strategies emphasize that fast development has to go side by side with sustainable development (Danish Energy Agency, 2017). The energy sector has become a dynamic economic sector, contributing to promoting socio-economic development, assuring national defense and security in many localities and for the country (Central committee of the communist party of Vietnam, 2020). Economic growth requires secure and affordable supply of energy to all of the society participants and economic sectors. Thus, the overall objective is to ensure national energy security, provide sufficient, stable and high-quality energy at an affordable price for rapid and sustainable socio-economic development, ensure national defense and security, improve people's lives and contribute to the protection of the ecological environment. Accordingly, the specific objective for EE is to reduce greenhouse gases emission from energy activities against the business -as-usual (BAU) scenario by 15% by 2030 and 20% by 2045 (Central committee of the communist party of Vietnam, 2020).
However, to achieve this National Program effectively, the commitment of the provincial/city level is of particular importance, as they are responsible for providing inputs on the determination of the targets set out under the national program. Further, they are also responsible for the implementation of the program in each province, which will be the key to achieving the set targets. From this perspective, the purpose of this study is to develop the guideline of action plans of the National Program on Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EE & C) of Vietnam in the period of 2020 -2030.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT
"Energy efficiency" is a conceptual term that is commonly used across a wide range of areas such as engineering, architectural design, production activities, management, organization, economics, and numerous important policy design and development initiatives (Shove, 2018). The concept of EE is diverse depending on perspectives, approaches, contexts and characteristics of research subjects (Huan and Hong, 2021), the meaning may vary depending on the domain, target, or purpose of use (Chen et al., 2020). When considering EE, the International Energy Agency (IEA) defines something to be more EE when it is able to provide more services with the same energy input or provide the same services with less energy input (International Energy Agency, 2014).
At the national level, Patterson (1996) defined a set of indicators used to measure EE from a physical and economic perspective, focusing on the energy consumption caused by each segment of the national economy, concluding that more attention needs to be given by policy analysts to manage this concept (Patterson, 1996).
To improve EE, regulatory approaches and information measures have been extensively applied, along with substantial resources being invested in research and development for energy-efficient technologies. However, EE depends not only on the availability of cheap technologies or on policy interventions, but it is largely influenced by the behavioral choices of users (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, 2016). According to the macro-economic aggregated perspective of the conventional market-driven economy, EE is either denoted as energy intensity of (reciprocal) as energy productivity. An increase in EE can be realized by technical, organizational, institutional, and structural changing actions seeking to save energy (Irrek and Thomas, 2008). From the perspective of energy policy, the EE can be achieved through the establishment of the national energy compliance system to measure effectiveness reduce energy consumption (Bertoldi and Mosconi, 2020).
The EEAP, as part of the implementation of the macro-economic on EE & C can promote the deployment of practical energy-saving solutions, and identify suitable energy-saving targets for provinces/ cities based on the local context and potentials. The analysis and EEAP development will present in the following sections. The EE/ EEAP target setting, there are two main types of targets mentioned in the national EE action plan (NEEAP): interim targets and final targets. The interim target is set for each NEEAP period and can be sectoral or national (aggregated sum of the sectorial interim targets). The final target corresponds to the desired value of savings the country wants to achieve. Table 1 show the example of EE target setting (Barghouth, 2014).
In this paper, we introduce an explicit measure of energy policy, based on the EE saving target in the period 2019-2025, vision 2030 at the level of provincial of Vietnam through case of Hanoi capital. The procedure for EEAP contain (1) Set the target, (2) Estimate baseline, (3) Develop action plan to meet the target. Action plans must be in line with NEEAP, be feasible, practical, and suitable to the general development context of each specific city.

Assumption
Assumption 1: The growth rate of energy demand (excluding electricity) of the province/city is equal to the growth rate of energy demand (excluding electricity) of the country according to the Viet Nam energy outlook report 2017 (Danish Energy Agency, 2017).
Assumption 2: The growth rate of industrial production value is equal to the growth rate of energy consumption.
Vietnam's industrial growth rate is based on the separate industrial planning of each province or city. However, for industrial sub-sectors, the growth rates used for the EEAP development process were based on Decision 880/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on approving the master plan for the development of Viet Nam's industry up to 2020, vision to 2030" (Prime Minister of Vietnam, 2014).

Cases selection
Hanoi capital was selected to conduct this study to develop EEAP as a model project of Vietnam EEAP. Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam situated in the north of Vietnam. Hanoi economy has been the important position in the whole economy and is the economic central of Northern of Vietnam.
Besides, Hanoi is a representative economic central from Key-Economics-Regions of Vietnam had implemented several EE programs and achieved some positive results on EE & C, received financial and technical resources and support from international agencies and organizations, and have a potential for energy savings in large industries and sub-sectors, especially industrial sub-sectors.
Currently, People's Committee of Hanoi has deployed some program for EE & C to achieve the EE targets by 2025.
• Decision No. 3700/QĐ-UBND on "Promulgating the implementation plan of the National program on energy efficiency and conservation in the area of Ha Noi City for the period 2021 -2025" • Number of action programs: 8 groups of action programs with 26 specific action programs • Set the EE objective: By 2025, to achieve energy savings of 5.0% to 7.0% of total energy consumption and reduce power loss to lower than 4.0% in the whole city • Expected fund VND 130 billion (one hundred and thirty billion Vietnamese dong) from the city budget.

Research procedure
The methodology for EEAP development of consists of 6 steps, which are specifically illustrated in the following diagram, and discussed in detail as shown in Table 2.
• Step 1. Authors conducted to develop EEAP was taking a preliminary assessment on the status of provincial energy data through kick-off meetings with local authorities. To collect sufficient data with high reliability, in the kick-off meetings with the six provinces and cities, the authors discussed the data collection and compilation methods, expected data types, data period and as well as data sources, and collection feasibility. The data collection methods, detailed time frames for each province and data collection form are agreed in consutation with stakeholders • Step 2. Data were collected from three main data sources: Department of Industry and Trade (DOIT), General Statistics Office (GSO), and Provincial Power Company (PC); Specifically • DOIT supply: List of designated energy users (DEUs), including details of energy consumption of each user; energy audit reports of DEUs in each province and city; Reports on the implementation of the energy-saving programs in previous VNEEP stages; Documents on Source: The authors systhesis from Barghouth, 2014 orientations and plans for socio-economic development of the province or city to 2030; Other documents • After setting targets and estimating baselines for cities/ provinces, the next step was to develop action plans to meet the required targets. Action plans must be in line with Vietnam NEEAP, be feasible, practical, and suitable to the general development context of each specific province and city • Funding for implementation: After identifying all potential action plans, it was necessary to identify funding sources for implementation from the following: State budget funds (central budget, local budget), support funding from domestic and foreign organizations, reciprocal funding from enterprises, and lawful funding sources as allowed under regulations • Implementation agencies: Relevant organizations responsible for implementing the EEAP covering all socio-economic sectors of the province/city were identified. • Step 6. Provide relevant departments and agencies in the provinces and cities with an appropriate excel form to monitor and evaluate the achieved results annually and by stages. Relevant departments and branches will self-monitor the targets set out under the approved plan, and annually send the results to DOIT for synthesizing and reporting to the Provincial People's Committee.

Data collection and analysis
The data collection were gathered from January' 2020 to May' 2021 including energy audit reports, action plans of the energysaving programs in previous stages, documents on orientations and plans for socio-economic development to 2030, list of DEUs, electricity consumption output by economic sectors in the period 2010-2019, and power development planning for the period 2016-2025, vision to 2035.
• Data by base year 2016: Data provided by the GSO, including energy consumption of energy users in the whole province/ city in 2016 (Agriculture, forestry, fisheries; Industry and Construction Commercial, hotel, restaurant; Transportation and Public services); It was noted the residential sector consumes a considerable amount of energy. At the current time, there are no statistics to determine the total amounts of energy consumed by this sector • Energy audit reports: 132 energy audit reports from 2016 to 2020 including industry, public, and trade building collected from DOITs • Previous energy-saving programs: These reports showed the details of implemented programs including energy savings, timeline and investment costs. These were the bases for the development of the implementation plans of the National target program on EE and conservation in the period 2020-2030 • Orientations and plans for socio-economic development: The total electricity consumption of each industry subsectors was based on the city own planning; The total electricity consumption of all industry sub-sectors was based on the national plan; The document on the socioeconomic development plan of the city to 2030 was used as the basis for forecasting energy consumption of other types of energy (exclude electricity) in the industry in the period 2020-2030 • List of DEUs: Based on the DEUs inspection report in 2019 submitted to MOIT by DOIT to collect information on energy types of DEUs, therefore, it is a highly reliable and accurate data source. This is the basis of forecasting the energy

General Target
After implemented the procedure of evaluation and assessment of opportunities and challenges of EEAP program in provinces/ cities, the following section will present the detailed plan for EEAP on the development of the model project to implement the National Program on EEAP in the period 2020-2030. It provided an opportunity to view in detail the situation related to EEAP of three cities in particular, and the whole country in general; issues such as lack of reliable energy data, the current status of energyconsuming equipment, trends in energy demand were highlighted.

EE Action Plan in Hanoi
In recent years, Hanoi's economy has a gradual growth rate (average 7.95%/year in the period 2016-2019). Additionally, the economic structure has shifted towards increasing the proportion of service and industry-construction sectors, reducing the proportion of the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector. Along with that, the energy demand of the city has increased; The average growth rate of power sale in the period 2016-2019 was 5.76%/year, in which: Industry -Construction increased 5.31%/year; Agriculture -Forestry -Fishery increased 37.68%/ year; Trade and Services increased by 5.26%/year; Residentials consumption management increased by 8.08%/year; Public services increased by 11.27%/year. To achieve the national target of 5-7% of energy-saving by 2025, Hanoi implemented 8 groups of action programs with 26 specific action programs under the Decision promulgating the implementation plan of the National program on energy efficiency and conservation in the area of Hanoi for the period 2021 -2025 (People's Committee of Hanoi, 2020).
In addition, in the Decision No. 1264/QD-TTg (NPDMP VIII) dated October, 1 st 2019 by the Primer Minister of Vietnam on approval for the "national power development master plan for 2021-2030 period with vision towards 2045" presented the growth rate of power sale as a fundamental for provincial EEAP implementation. The forecast of energy consumption (electricity is the main element) growth rate to 2025 was based on the NPDMP VIII as shown in Table 3. Table 4 present the forecast of energy consumption in the period of 2021-2025. Based on the calculation from the database, the potential for energy savings in large industries and sub-sectors, especially industrial sub-sectors up to 14.9% in the period of 2021 -2025.
In detail, the energy consumption forcasting from sub-sectors are indicated in Table 5: After forecasted yearly energy consumption and its growth rate by sector and sub-sectors, we conducted the work of target setting for energy-saving year by year for Hanoi from 2021 to 2025 as Tables 6 and 7.
For the specific target in the period of 2021-2025: • Energy-saving level of 5.0% -7.0% of total energy consumption; and reduce power loss to less than 4.0% throughout the City • 100% of key transport enterprises have programs about vehicle control skills/technical measures in exploitation and energysaving means of transportation • 100% of enterprises in industrial zones and clusters and 80% of agricultural units and handicraft villages have the ability to access, apply measures of energy efficiency and conservation • 100% of DEUs apply energy management systems as required by regulations • Ensure the compliance of implementation of requirements of the National Technical Regulation on energy efficiency buildings which are under the applicable scope of the Regulation • 330 units, buildings across the city are recognized as "Green energy user" with the use of energy efficiency and conservation. Besides, there are at least 2-3 buildings recognized as green units using energy efficiency and conservation every year • Organize training for 5000 technical staff, energy managers in industrial units, buildings; educating and issuing certifications for 250-300 energy managers  Total 8,438,006 9,281,221 10,208,957 11,229,710 12,352,832 Source: Calculated by the authors  • Contribute to reducing the average energy consumption for all sectors/sub-sectors compared to the period 2016 -2020.

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Using energy economically and efficiently is essential, and should be maintained over time in line with the socio-economic development of the country. To sustain EE & C, Viet Nam requires a well-defined long-term plan and strategy, with continue implementation and adjustments in order to remove barriers and control risks from increasing national energy demands. EE & C can also address the five core issues: • Pressure to invest in new power sources • Depleting national energy resources • Increasing national energy intensity • Degradation of the environment and increasing greenhouse gas emissions • Maintain economic, social benefits and establish a safe, civilized and modern living environment for people, enterprises and communities.
The national program on EE & C in the period of 2019 -2030 (here in after referred to as the VNEEP Program) is needed to continue energy development strategy, and represents an important element in the national sustainable development strategy, aimed at turning Vietnam to become a country using EE & C.
To support for the municipal EEAP planning, this study aims: • Deployed a detailed evaluation of available data and data sources at the provincial level • Development of appropriate conservation targets specific to energy savings potentials of each province or city • Identification of EE measures suitable for general development and energy situation of the province or city.
Besides, the support for developing provincial/city EEAP is essential to the promotion and deployment of practical energysaving solutions; and setting of suitable energy-saving targets for provinces and cities based on local contexts and potentials. Results and methodology developed from this study can form the basis to help other countries like Vietnam in their development and implementation of the National Program on EE & C.
Based on the analysis of the data delivered and proposed action plan of EE and C for Vietnam's capital, the analysis in this study the following recommendations have emerged: (1) Improvements to the local energy database system to determine specific factors affecting energy demand of the province/ city, (2) Implement training programs to improve the capacity of specialized managers to implement the National target program on energy efficiency and conservation in the period of 2020 -2030, (3) Scaling up the project to provide support for development and implementation of the National target program on energy efficiency and conservation in the period 2020-2030 for provinces and cities.
Although this study provides interesting results and insights, it has some limitations: • Assessment and analysis of energy consumption trends were based on relative impact factors, which have not fully reflected specific characteristics of the province or city due to the fact that the statistical data for the province or city were incomplete and inconsistent • The energy-saving potentials by sub-sectors and sectors are not yet comprehensive due to the limited number of energy audit reports and the quality of energy audit reports; In general, these limitations provide chances for future researches continue to contribute to the literature of EE & C for developing countries.