Giants hook up to power on

The contract was signed between the PetroVietnam Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) – the plant’s main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor and the Sojitz-Daelim.

PVC director Vu Duc Thuan said the contract included equipment supply and a detailed design for the turbine and generator areas.

The plant is located at the Thai Binh power centre in the northern province’s Thai Thuy district.

It has a capacity of 1,200 megawatts and  total investment of $1.6 billion, and it is expected to commence operations in 2015 with the output of about 6.7 billion kWh per year.

According to PVC, Sojitz-Daelim met all requirements, submitted a clear implementation plan and met strict capital arrangement commitments to be offered by Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Korea’s EXIM, through commercial banks BTMU, Mitzuho and HSBC.

Investors and contractors planned to put the first turbine into operation after 39 months and the second after 45 months from the signing day. The Thai Binh centre, expected to significantly  boost the national power supply system, consists of the Thai Binh 1 power plant  invested by state-run Electricity of Vietnam and Thai Binh 2 power plant, invested by state-run PetroVietnam.

Thai Binh 2 started construction in February 2011, while construction work on Thai Binh 1 will kick-off next quarter. PVC has acted as main EPC contractor for many oil and gas sector projects in Vietnam, including the Nhon Trach 2, Ca Mau, Vung Ang 1, Long Phu-Song Hau power plants.

PetroVietnam targets to produce 20 per cent of the country's overall electricity output in 2015. The group has invested in the 1,500MW Ca Mau power plant and 450MW Nhon Trach 1. PetroVietnam is also going to build 1,200MW Long Phu thermal plant 1 in the Long Phu power centre in Soc Trang province and the 700MW Nhon Trach power plant 2.

Sojitz is a Japanese famous trading company which had supplied turbine and supported appliances for the Vung Ang 1 in Ha Tinh province, while Daelim has built many large scale power and nuclear plants in Korea.