Long An 1 and 2 thermal power plants to switch to LNG model

Long An 1 & 2 thermal power plants are proposing to switch to LNG

At a recent working session with the Minister of Industry and Trade, Le Minh Duc – director of Long An Department of Industry and Trade – reported that the province proposed changing the technology of the two thermal power plants while simultaneously adjusting the scale of these projects.

VinaCapital Group Ltd. and other investors will be in charge of developing these two projects, which contributes to decreasing the financial pressure on state-run Electricity of Vientam (EVN) to develop new electricity sources. With the average construction of 30-36 months per project, the construction will be much faster than a coal-fired power plant.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade highly commended this proposal and asked the province to carefully select investors because this choice would have a significant impact on construction schedules, the quality as well as effectiveness of the project.

Long An People’s Committee put constraints on the technology to be used in the $5 billion Long An power centre project.

The power centre includes two power plants that will use coal imported from Australia and Indonesia, in line with the National Master Plan for Power Development for 2011-2020, with a vision to 2030, known as the adjusted Power Development Planning VII, which was revised and released in March 2016.

The Mekong Delta-based power centre was expected to be constructed and put into operation by 2024, with a total capacity of 2,800MW with two plants, supplying about 17.7GWh per year to the national grid – helping to alleviate future pressure in the southern provinces.

Several foreign investors showed interest in participating, as evidenced by Daewoo E&C’s pitch for the $2.7 billion build-operate-transfer Long An 1 coal-fired project and Korea Electric Power Corporation’s plan for the $3.1 billion Long An 2 coal-fired project.