Electricity drought to continue as rains fail

Manufacturers will need to continue thinking outside the square to get the job done

Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) said low rainfall in the central and southern provinces during the past week made hydropower plant reservoirs fall to dead levels, which meant almost no power generation at the plants.

“The country might not face power output shortages as we are promoting generation from other thermal power plants nationwide and hydropower plants in the north, but capacity shortages will possibly cause power cuts in peak hours during the month,” said EVN deputy general director Nguyen Manh Hung.

According to EVN, water in some key reservoirs in the central and southern areas including Tri An, Thac Mo, Buon Kuop, Dai Ninh, Yaly, Song Hinh, A Vuong and Buon Tua Srah almost stood at dead levels or only 0.3-0.7 of a metre higher than the dead levels.

“Problems occurring in some major coal-fired power projects, which started operation several months ago, have made them constantly cease generation for repairs, worsening the situation,” Hung said.

Those plants included the Quang Ninh 1, Son Dong and Cam Pha 1 coal-fired power plants.

The average power consumption in August is estimated at 304 million kilowatt hours per day, compared to 300 million kWh reported in July.

Heavy rains have arrived in the northern region, enabling local hydropower plants to run at high capacity.

“However, as August is the month when floods come, northern hydropower reservoirs are not allowed to store water at their highest capacity but to release water to prevent heavy floods,” Hung said.

“That reason has made their turbines unable to run as much as they can, resulting in low capacity during the flood season,” he said.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), EVN will have to promote purchasing power from other power producers in Vietnam and China, including from expensive oil-fired power plants, to ensure supply for the whole country during the month.

The MoIT stressed that power demand in households surged dramatically during this time as hot weather continued to overwhelm the country.

In the first seven months of the year, households’ power consumption increased 7.2 per cent from last year’s corresponding time, making up nearly 40 per cent of power consumption in the country. Industrial and construction areas, meanwhile, saw an on-year increase of 15.5 per cent of power, accounting for more than a half of power consumption output of the country.

Power consumption in general increased 15.5 per cent on-year to nearly 48 billion kWh during January-July.