The first day of February 2022 – day of Vietnamese Lunar New Year – will also mark the 10 month anniversary of the Vietnam Energy Efficiency Community website -  VEECOM. On this occasion, the article makes highlights on the young website that has gradually become familiar to readers and especially to those working in the energy efficiency field of our country. Hopefully the brief outlines on the basic successes, the lessons learned in the development process  as well as the suggestions on the orientation for the coming time will give readers and members a better overview to join hands in building VEECOM which is expected richer in content and more vivid in form, contributing to the development of Vietnam's energy efficiency sector.

General introduction

            Website of Vietnam Energy Efficiency Community (VEECOM) was built and developed within the framework of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project (referred to as Project 4E) under the cooperation program between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam (MOIT) and the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ), implemented by the German Organization for Development Cooperation (GIZ). VEECOM has been officially activated and operated since April 2021. The Vietnam Enerrgy Conservation and Energy Efficiency Association (VECEA) is the agency responsible for the content and administration of the VEECOM website.

            VEECOM's primary goal is to provide online information on energy efficiency (EE) policies, technologies, equipment, experiences and skills, thereby contributing to improve knowledge, awareness and practice of the economical and efficient use of energy in production and business activities of the enterprises’ community. Energy auditors, energy managers and technicians at enterprises will be supported in their daily work through calculation tools, information about technology, equipment and EE solutions. Best practices are  regularly introduced and updated, thereby gradually improving professional capacity and skills. Stakeholders such as EE experts, staff at research institutions, lecturers and  students at universities and vocational colleges, equipment suppliers, state management officials in the field of energy efficiency are also potential members that VEECOM is aiming for.

            Also at VEECOM, the "Energy Efficiency Forum" was established, which is a playground for the Vietnamese energy efficiency community to directly exchange expertise, share experiences and innovative ideas, improve knowledge through interactive forms, multiple choice contests for self-training and learning from each other. .

            The main categories of VEECOM include:

• News & Events is a subpage that publishes information and events about domestic and foreign energy efficiency activities.
• Science & Technology is the place to publish information on science and technology and profesional articles on management - technology in the field of energy efficiency by the network of VECEA’s experts.

• The Forum is a place to exchange practical experiences, introduce new technologies, discuss on professional skills and interact among VEECOM members. In addition, every week the Forum is also the place to organize multiple choice contests with topics related to energy efficiency; the winners of the contests will receive meaningful gifts awarded by the VEECOM.

• Best Practices is the place to post typical energy-saving projects/solutions that have been successfully implemented at energy users in the sectors of industry, buildings, transportation, construction, etc.

• Partners is the place to post information as well as field of activity of EE Equipment/Service Providers and VEECOM's main partners.

• The Resources is the main source of information such as: legal documents, manuals, databases, E-learning and useful websites to provide members with information and knowledge about energy efficiency.

• Tools is a category that provides members with tools to convert units of energy, for the purpose of convenient use in professional work.

• NEEI Award is a subpage that provides information about the annual National Energy Efficiency Industry Award.

VEECOM's activities, initial successes

            In the first quarter of 2021 VEECOM is still in the stage of both building and testing its design and adding content.

            Although VEECOM has just been officially opened since the beginning of April 2021, by the end of December 2021 the number of visits to VEECOM's website is more than one million. More than 550 Energy Managers, Energy Auditors and experts are registered as full members. The number of articles/news selected by VEECOM's administrators and published in the categories is more than 1000. Specially in those articles more than 30 in-depth posts implemented by the network of VECEA’s experts which deals with hot topics such as energy efficient lighting; saving energy in the production of building materials, textiles and beverages; optimization of energy system, EMS system, ISO 50001 management system, ESCO activities in Vietnam, current status of financial mechanism on energy efficiency in Vietnam, energy saving activities in localities, etc.

            VEECOM has initially built up a core network of members - including many female members - who are passionate about their profession, regularly and actively participate in interactive activities on the Forum and in weekly contests, self-study, self-training activities, using and skillfully exploiting the facilities of VEECOM to serve their professional work. These members have a positive and pervasive effect in the businesses, organizations and units in localtities, encourage more and more people to register to join the official membership, contribute to the more lively and useful Forum.

            In particular, an impressive highlight is that VEECOM has successfully organized nearly fifty weekly contests in the form of multiple choice (quiz) on EE knowledge which have been weekly, monthly, quarterly evaluated and ranked by electronic technology. By the end of December 2021, there were accumulated of more than 800 participants participating in this activities. The contests contributes to cultivating professional knowledge, working skills and capacity building for members.

 Figure 1. VEECOM website is gradually becoming familiar to internet users

            With the enthusiastic comments of the adminitrators’ teams through the operation process, the design of VEECOM has been significantly improved compared to the past, satisfying the requirements of the main operating functions. Recently, VEECOM has effectively served the task of organizing the National Award for Energy Efficiency in Industry - NEEIA 2021.

            Currently with the search function on Google, readers just need to type "veecom" to easily find VEECOM website. This is also a good sign for the position of veecom.vn on Vietnamese and international internet.

Figure 2. Growth graph of participating members in 9 months of operation

Figure 3. Growth graph of posts in the News & Events category

Lessons learned and orientation for development

            Although it has not been in operation for a long time, so far VEECOM has obtained encouraging results. For the first time the Vietnam Energy Efficiency Community has had an official playground through the operation of the website as VEECOM. However, over the passed period of operation, the website Administration realized that there are a number of limited issues that need to be further researched and overcome such as: attractiveness of the website, interaction between members, diversification of information, connectivity matter with partners and related profesional websites etc.

            In order for VEECOM to truly become a companion of the Energy Efficiency Community, it is necessary to have a plan to improve the quality in terms of content, transmission, interface design, and management form so that VEECOM can become a an information base on energy efficiency to provide members with up-to-date and effective knowledge.

            The general orientation of VEECOM development in the coming time is as follows:

- Further improve the ability to interact actively between members participating in the Forum, create a more interesting playground to attract new members for the Forum.

- Exploit the application of images and games to create motivation and improve the effectiveness of online learning on energy efficiency;

- Periodically organize online seminars and professional workshops;

- Create links to facebook fanpages to widely link, quickly spread information so that more and more people can connect and access the website.

- Promote interactive activities, share experiences of VEECOM members, presentation and promotion skills about energy efficiency activities with actual content of enterprises.

- Perform towards the corresponding development of the English content of the VEECOM; create opportunities to connect with foreign partners and organizations related to activities on economical and efficient use of energy.

- Expand the diversity of industries and fields in VEECOM through articles on energy efficiency in line with the scope of the National Program on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy for the period of 2019-2030, which was issued under Decision 280/ QĐ-TTg dated 13/3/2019 of the Prime Minister.

- Improve the quality of transmission lines, bandwidth as well as server capacity to organize online classes and store specialized data for energy managers and energy auditors to use.

            Developing VEECOM into a reliable information base for the Vietnam Energy Efficiency Community is the ultimate goal. With this website, organizations and individuals will have many opportunities to build relationships with partners, directly exchange ideas, actively share experiences and innovative ideas, improve their expertise when becoming a member of VEECOM. Hopefully in the near future, VEECOM will be more and more improved, connected and interacted with major forums such as Energy Efficiency Global Forum; Central & Eastern European Energy Efficiency Forum and many other Energy Efficiency Websites.

Eng. Dang Khac Man,

Vietnam Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency Association

References:

1) VECEA, 2020: Regulation on Management and Operation of Vietnam Energy Efficiency Community Website – VEECOM;

2) VECEA, 2020-2021: Periodic Reports on VEECOM Management and Operation;