According to the HCM City Energy Conservation Center, only 1,200 LED lights are used out of the total 102,500 bulbs for public lighting. Most of the other lights are high-pressure mercury (HPM) or high pressure sodium (HPS) lights, reported Viet Nam News.

The hindered and low usage of LED lights was attributed by an installer to high installation costs, and lack of financing to back private companies that are interested in public lighting.

The city spends about VND130 billion (US$5.9 million) a year consuming about 90 million kWh for public lighting.

An estimated 55 million kWh per year of electricity can be saved if the HPM and HPS light bulbs were all replaced with LEDs that have a capacity between 65W and 200 W.

This is roughly equivalent to VND88 billion ($3.99 million), and can reduce 31 tonnes of carbon emissions into the environment.

City streetlights lampposts, though, are incompatible with LEDs, since they were deisgned for HPM and HBS bulbs, said Huynh Tri Dung, Vice chairman of the Viet Nam Lighting Association and director of the HCM City Public Lighting.

Although, there are many LED lighting products on the market, installers have to be careful with their choice of bulbs, said Director of the HCM City Energy Conservation Center, Huynh Kim Tuoc.

To illustrate, Huynh Tri Dung, Vice chairman of the Viet Nam Lighting Association and director of the HCM City Public Lighting reported issues in finding replacement options for broken components.

Although, LED lighting improved it has been difficult to replace broken products since the components were no longer being manufactured, said Dung.