Major power projects go on line

A major transmission line and transformer station costing US$81 million have finally come on line to improve connection between the southwest power system and the national grid.

The O Mon 500kV transformer station with the capacity of 450MVA and the 500kV power transmission line between Nha Be and O Mon were launched in Can Tho on Wednesday.

Their other task is to transmit the electricity produced by Ca Mau and O Mon thermoelectric power plants, with capacities of 1,500MW and 660MW, respectively, into the national grid.

The power transmission line passes through HCM City and five localities in the Mekong Delta, including Can Tho, Long An, Tien Giang, Vinh Long and Dong Thap.

Southern electrical project management board director Nguyen Tien Hai said that within five years, the O Mon transformer station capacity would be doubled and the total electricity through O Mon-Nha Be from now until 2020 would be about 45.3 billion kWh.

On the same day, the National Power Transmission Company successfully kicked off the 220kV transmission line between Hai Phong and Dinh Vu, which would transmit electricity from the 300MW Hai Phong thermoelectric power plant into the national grid to enhance its reliability, particularly in the northeast.

The company said the new projects would help reduce electricity shortages over the dry season. The Ministry of Industry and Trade said electricity shortages were caused by increased demand and considerable delays in completing electricity projects due to funding delays, lack of technical expertise and prolonged site clearance.

Power shortage warning

The Electricity of Viet Nam has said it will have difficulty in meeting the power demand this month and during the rest of the dry season in the north which has just begun. A long and severe drought across the country has depleted water in hydropower reservoirs and the onset of the dry season is only expected to worsen the situation.

As a result, the EVN will have to reduce power generation to ensure water in reservoirs does not go down below a certain level before the flood season, adversely affecting generating equipment.

This will be equivalent to 2-5 per cent of its output, or 50-130 million kWh.

Following the Prime Minister’s instruction to take drastic measures to ensure continued supply during the dry season, the EVN is trying to speed up repair work at some power plants, import more electricity, even generate thermal power using oil at a cost of VND4,000-5,000 per kWh.

Vu Duy Quang, general manager of PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PV Power), a subsidiary of the State-owned Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group, or PetroVietnam, said PV Power had instructed its plants to run at full capacity.

The company was expected to generate more than 6 billion kWh in the first half of the year, he said. PV Power has a capacity of 1,950MW, or around 12 per cent of the nation’s electricity needs.

Viet Nam News

Tags: Vietnam energy, Vietnam power plants