EVN has power to succeed

The cash-trapped firm (EVN) reported in January its Kanak hydropower project in central Gia Lai province, Song Bung hydro power project in Quang Nam province and Dong Nai 4 hydropower project in Dong Nai province will head off any looming electricity crisis this year.

The 220kV Bac Lieu-Soc Trang transmission project and 110kV Ha Dong-Van Dinh transmission project were completed last month, while construction of the line that connected to 600 megawatt Nghi Son 1 thermal power plant in Thanh Hoa province and updated 500kV Ha Tinh-Danang transmission line started.

The group forecasted that the average power output would stand at 306 million kilowatt hours per day in February as generation sources become more available.

Meanwhile, work is underway to complete the Kanak 1 and Kanak 2 generators to supply 13MW to the grid and it is expected the Son La hydropower project, South East Asia's largest hydroelectric power plant, will come fully online in 2012.

The Son La project, which has a total six turbines and an accumulative designed capacity of 2,400MW, lies between the 1,200MW Lai Chau hydropower project in the upper scale and the 1,920MW Hoa Binh plant in the lower scale.

EVN started construction of the Son La project in December 2006, which will be able to supply 10.2 billion kWh to the country annually.

Dinh The Phuc, deputy head of Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam, said power supplies in 2012 would be ensured for the whole country.

Previously, there were alarm bells sounded by Pham Le Thanh, general director of EVN, that Hanoi was threatened with a power shortfall of 15-20 per cent this year because of slow progress in the upgrades and development of power transmission systems in 2012.

The national transmission system was in dire need of an overhaul, according to experts in the power sectors.

However, Phuc said transmission systems  for Hanoi were being updated.

Last month, the total electricity output of the whole system reached 8.217 billion kWh and the average electricity output reached 265 million kWh per day, down 5.1 per cent from the same period last year.   

In January 2012, EVN's electricity purchasing and production reached about 8.13 billion kWh, down 3.64 per cent on year, in which 3.37 billion KWh of electricity production, and 4.7 billion kWh in electricity purchases.