Power cuts cost businesses billions of dong

The sun and summer heat cause enterprises to lose billions of dong as production is regularly interrupted by power outages.

“The power company gave advance notice of the power cut schedule, but then they changed it unexpectedly. As a result, we could not deliver products on schedule and we had to pay fines of hundreds of millions of dong,” complained Director Tran Anh Tuan.

Tuan’s enterprise produces wooden furniture in Quang Ngai province. He observed that production has been stagnant recently due to the outages.

Petroleum companies, both state-owned and private-run, are also crying about the electricity cuts. Vuong Thanh Dong, Director of Quang Ngai Petroleum, estimates that his company has spent 13 million dong a day on fuel to run electric generators for 28 filling stations.

“Sometimes the electric generator has trouble, resulting in long lines of waiting vehicles,” Dong admitted.

Quang Ngai Electric Company has been ordered to conserve 350,000kw of electricity per day, so it must cut electricity in turns throughout Quang Ngai City.

Nguyen Tu, Director of Quang Ngai Electric, acknowledged that electricity for industrial zones is prioritized, while other areas have to bear repeated cuts.

According to Tu, the Central Region’s General Electricity Corporation allocates the output to provincial electric companies daily, therefore, Quang Ngai sometimes cannot follow its previously released schedules.

“The summer heat will be more severe in May and June, and so electricity cuts may occur more regularly,” he warned.

As for Quang Nam province, many factories have resumed their production as the national economy has recovered. Because of this, demand for electricity in the first quarter of 2010 has increased by 63.53 percent in comparison with the same period of last year.

Now, many areas in Quang Nam province must endure power cuts from 6 am to 10.30 pm every day.

Binh Dinh and Phu Yen electricity companies have also cut electricity on two days a week from 7am to midnight.

According to the Central Region’s General Electricity Corporation, growing industries in the central region have cause electricity use to increase by 52 percent, but the electricity supply has not risen. Vietnam has been relying on hydropower plants, but now that the dry season has arrived, the plants lack the water to produce enough power.

Tags: Vietnam energy, Vietnam power shortage