Drought may cause power cuts worries

Electricity supplies in March will face shortages due to the prolonged drought in the north, said the Viet Nam electricity corporation (EVN).

In a report released last week, head of the Administrative Department Le Quang Long said that demand was forecast to increase to an average of 260-265 million kWh per day, with highs of 277 million kWh, due to hot weather across the country.

Around 3 billion cubic metres of water have already been released for the winter-spring crop. Drought in the north had contributed to the lowest water levels in reservoirs in the past ,100 years, said Long.

A report from the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting also said that the drought would continue across the nation.

Long said that while some newly-run thermo-electricity plants had not yet been able to work at their highest capacities, the Chinese Yunnan Electric Power Company had decided to cut their supplies for maintenance services to reduce electricity imports by 10 million kWh per day.

In an effort to guarantee supplies, the EVN board of management asked all power plants to work at their highest capacities and use the 500kV north-south wire network to transfer electricity from the south to support the national grid.

The corporation also conducted communications programmes to call for electricity savings for clients.

In addition, the corporation was pushing up the progress of other thermo-electricity power plants such as Hai Phong No1 and Quang Ninh No1.

Under the EVN plan, around seven power plants would begin running this month.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

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