Expanded Duyen Hai 3 Thermal Power Plant to go into commercial operation this month

Expanded Duyen Hai 3 Thermal Power Plant is ready to begin operation this month

The state council for acceptance testing of construction works has permitted Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) to put the Expanded Duyen Hai 3 Thermal Power Plant project in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh into commercial operation.

The thermal power plant extension project at the Duyen Hai thermal power complex located in Dan Thanh commune, Duyen Hai district, includes a 600MW power unit. The unit was scheduled to supply approximately 3.9 billion kWh to southern provinces and cities. The project has a total investment capital of $986.95 million.

In 2014, Sumitomo Corporation received an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to construct a supercritical power station in the 688MW Duyen Hai 3 coal-fired thermal power station expansion project of Power Generation Corporation 1, a power subsidiary of state-run utility EVN.

The construction of the project was kicked off in December 2014 and the expanded plant was expected to go into commercial operation in 2018. However, according to the report of the National Steering Committee for Power Development, the construction of Duyen Hai 3 expanded project was behind schedule.

Sumitomo and sub-contractors’ weakness in management and operation capacity, in addition to the delays in supplying machinery and equipment, are the major reasons of falling behind schedule.

Especially, the fire at the construction site in March 2018, caused by the carelessness of the sub-contractor Jurong Engineering Ltd., will extend the delays in the construction of the project.

Duyen Hai 3 is one of four power projects developed at Duyen Hai Power Centre with a combined generation capacity of 4,348MW as outlined in the nation’s power development master plan between 2011 and 2020 with a vision towards 2030. The centre occupies a total area of 879 hectares.