Enterprises sell electricity to China, Government purchases electricity from China

A paradox has existed: while power plants have capacity in excess and they have to sell electricity to China, the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) still plans to purchase electricity from China in the upcoming years.

Power plants which have the total investment capital of up to tens of trillions of dong have been left idle. Meanwhile, the government is still calling for more investment in power projects, while EVN has been insisting on raising the sale prices.

They problem lies in the mechanism?

In fact, the electricity sale to China has been existing for years; however, no proper solution has been found to stop the problem.

There are now two 110KV electricity networks in Lao Cai province, including one in Lao Cai City and the other in Tang Loong, while the big additional charge gathers in Tang Loong. Therefore, when the 110KV transmission line linking Lao Cai and Tang Loong broke down, the Lao Cai province lost 80 percent of the load capacity (100MW). Meanwhile, most of big hydropower plants, including Muong Hum and Nam Khoa 3 all use the line As a result, electricity has been transmitted to China.

The lack of a 220KV station in Lao Cai has made the situation more serious. In fact, Cong an nhan dan has quoted its sources as saying that the station has been built, but it has not been put into operation, since there has been no electric wire due to the tardiness in site clearance.

The Northern Power Corporation is in charge of purchasing electricity, while it is the National Power Transmission Corporation which takes responsibility for building transmission networks, while the provincial authorities need to take responsibility for site clearance.

A comprehensive measure needed

The Northern Power Corporation has announced that a new network will be put into operation which will consume a big proportion of generation of the plants. However, the problem still has not been settled yet. An officer of the corporation said that even if the network is put into operation, it would be able to handle 100MW at maximum.

“The power plants would be able to run at 80 percent of the capacity only. I am afraid that in July and August, when it rains, power plants will have excessive water to generate power, the electricity will have to go to China,” he said.

According to the Lao Cai provincial Department for Industry and Trade, by the end of 2011, the total electricity capacity of local power plants would reach 400MW, which is triple the current capacity. The figure would be 750 MW by the end of 2013.

Meanwhile, the electricity consumption in the area is forecast to be much smaller than the supply, and if there is no transmission line, the current situation will not be improved–power plants have electricity in excess, but they cannot sell electricity, while other areas are seriously lacking electricity.

“We have tried to contact the National Power Transmission Corporation to learn about the building of the transmission lines, but we have been told to keep waiting,” an official said.

According to the Lao Cai provincial Department for Industry and Trade, under the power network development plan, the Lao Cai 2 110 kV – 40 MVA transformer station will be invested by EVN. However, as EVN has not had investment plan yet, the investors of power plants have decided to contribute capital and empowered the Northern Power Corporation to build the station. However, too many problems have arisen in the implementation of the project

Besides this, the construction of the 110KV Tang Long – Van Ban – Than Uyen backbone line, the 220KV Bao Thang transformer station and the 220KV Bao Thang-Yen Bai line has also been going very slowly.

Tags: Vietnam electricity, Vietnam electricity prices, Vietnam energy