Vietnam Reiterates EVN to Ensure Power Supply for National Economy

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently requested again the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) to mobilize all available power sources to ensure supply for the national economy.

The move follows a recent announcement by Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam (ERAV) that EVN, the national sole power distributor, has not yet mobilized all available power sources to boost supply.

The ministry said EVN’s power cuts must be in turns and fair and the firm needs to prevent consecutive and prolonged blackouts in rural areas and to household consumers as well as must apply suitable methods to maintain the best power supply to households, particularly in evenings.

Earlier, ERAV said EVN has decided to slash oil-fueled power generation capacity and reduce power purchases from those power plants since April 19 as the firm said it incurred huge losses of VND2 trillion (US$105.263 million) in 2009 triggered by increasing oil prices.

Power supply has been cut by between 18% and 20%, which is much higher than EVN’s announcement of 6%; and local producers in many localities incurred blackouts twice per week and households in rural areas all week long for recent weeks.

EVN always attributes its capital shortfalls to the stagnant construction of many of its power projects; however, experts said many small-sized hydropower plants across Vietnam are facing difficulties in electricity sales as power transmission grids to connect electricity to the national grid have not yet been built.

Also, the Southeast Asian country has not yet made full use of all available power sources as EVN has not yet signed power purchase agreements with a lot of operational plants. (VoV)

Tags: Vietnam electricity, Vietnam energy, Vietnam power shortage